The Book of Thoth
by House Telvanni
Summary: All Bianca wanted was to sell her shop and move on with her life. But when a strange tablet surfaces, she finds herself dragged kicking and screaming into a world filled with more sand, sun and excitement than she ever wanted.
1. Chapter One: Pretty Bad Beginnings

**Chapter One: Pretty Bad Beginnings **

If you were to ask any person pulled off the street to find the best antique dealer in Cairo, not a single person would point you towards the back ally shop that was "The Crimson Diamond. Not only did its name somewhat resemble that of a low end gentleman's club, but one look at the shop and you could tell that it had seen better days. The dust coated windows were covered in spider web cracks and the flaking white walls hadn't seen a paint brush in too many years to count. It was only if someone peered into the building that they could see the treasures that were held inside. Shelves that reached the ceiling filled the room from wall to wall and each one was stuffed to the brim with different items. The one closest to the door seemed to be the designated "crumbling apart old pottery section while the one next to that looked like the "clearly gold and shouldn't be laying out in the open" shelf. And if you twisted your head just the right way you could catch a glimpse of the wooden desk in the very back of the room that held the eternally empty cash register and the poor soul that had been wrangled into working that day. Bianca Chevalier was usually that poor soul. And now that every other worker had been fired, she was the only poor soul available.

Sunlight shone in through the windows, making the dust that floated through the air more apparent than usual, and the sound of the busy city outside barely reached inside the walls. In the very back of the store sat a slumped over woman and the stack of papers that had kept her working so late the night before. Her rust colored hair threatened to spring out of the tight bun that it had been wound into hours before and the once perfectly ironed and wrinkle free linen dress that she wore was now a complete mess. A sigh escaped her lips as she pried open her eyes and gazed around. She slowly pushed herself up off of the desk and into a sitting position, much to the protest of her aching back. Grimacing, she realized that she had fallen asleep on the job for the second time that week.

'I really have to do something about that.' she thought as she rose her arms above her head and started to work out the kinks that had formed in her joints. 'It's not even like the bedroom is that far away. It can't be more than twenty feet.'

She would never admit it to herself, but she knew that there were plenty of reasons that she hadn't made the short journey to her bed that night. The room held too many memories for her and she probably got more sleep hunched over the counter than she would have on her old, lumpy spring mattress. Her lips dipped down slightly as the thoughts fluttered through her mind before they were quickly banished.

After a quick roll of her shoulders she leaned down to focus on the problem area that was her leg. Bianca clumsily swung it to the side and slowly lifted it up, bending it carefully at the knee. She winced as the sharp pain shot up through her body and quickly placed it back on the ground. 'It's been worse these last few days. I'll have to be more careful today.'

Bianca reached to the side of the desk and wrapped her hand around the worn wooden cane that was leaning exactly where she had propped it. She could feel the familiar carvings that wound around the handle and down the shaft. Even the indents where her fingers had worn grooves into the cherry wood were apparent to her. With years of experience at hand, she used her new leverage to stand up from her seat and took a few shaky steps forward. Her body quickly adjusted to the new weight and she was able to steady herself completely.

Humming a few bars from the song that had wedged itself firmly into her mind for the last few days, she gathered up the top layers of papers from her stack and looked them over. 'Lovely.' she thought as she tucked the papers under one arm and started making her way toward the middle of the shop. 'Only about three more shelves to go and then every single worthless piece of junk in this bloody shop will have finally been categorized and catalogued. Only took us what? Five years?'

She knew that she was being unfairly bitter about the whole thing, but at the moment she really didn't care. 'Well, it's not like we ever had any customers to worry about any way.' The shelves around her slowly began turning from the rusted old metal section to rocks that may or may not be worth anything part of the store. A quick glance down at her papers told her that this was where she had stopped the day before. She quickly removed her pen from its place tucked into her bun and placed the stack in a vacant space on the shelf ahead of her. 'Time to get to work'.

The hours seemed to fly past as she made her way through the piles and piles of treasure mixed with trash. She found fake jade dragons, old papyrus scrolls tucked behind South American jugs, and a variety of items that she couldn't even dream of putting a name to if her life depended on it. All of it was quickly inspected then a rough date was given and a highly inflated price was assigned for each antique. By noon she was finally at the final shelf.

"Just cast an eye in his direction, oh me oh my, aint that perfection?" She half mumbled and half sung the song lyrics softly under her breath as she hobbled a few steps forward and turned to face her next obstacle. She caught herself quickly and snapped her mouth shut. After glancing around the very empty shop for anyone that could have heard her little solo, she shook her head at her slip.

This last shelf was nearly empty, not that she was complaining, with only one real object of interest. A few small ore samples and broken open crystals were scattered on the top most shelves and a bag of bronze coins was resting on the bottom, but the thing that really drew her attention was the tablet resting at eye height. Even after five years of working at the shop, and three years of thinking that she had seen everything under the sun, she had to admit that there wasn't anything else like it. As black as the night and with every inch covered in cryptic hieroglyphics, the tablet was so thin it seemed like it would crumble apart with just one touch. Bianca rested her cane against the shelf and carefully picked the stone up. She tilted it slightly so that it caught the light and seemed to shine. 'I remember when Louis came back with you.' she mused. 'He left for some little dig out in the middle of the desert and left me in charge of the shop for a week. We both expected him to come back with gems and gold and instead he brought back a rock!'

Bianca ran her fingers lightly over the engravings that covered the tablet, feeling the intricacy of each symbols. Just as she was about to put it back in its place, she caught sight of something moving out of the corner of her eye. She spun around, but was faced with nothing. 'That's odd.' she thought. 'I could have sworn...' A shiver shot up her spine and the hairs on the back of her neck seemed to jump strait up as if a sudden breeze had blown through the shop. The sensation was gone just as fast as it had arrived.

She quickly set it back down and took up her pen and paper. In the next blank line she quickly scribbled down "black tablet, more than 2000 years?" She paused for a moment before continuing "Included in samples for museum."

Without really thinking she jotted down something similar for the last two items. Bianca grabbed her cane and turned to look around the shop. She was finally done. With a smile on her face she walked over to the desk with a slight spring in her step and picked up the telephone. After a few whisks of her finger she was connected.

"Yes, this is Bianca Chevalier from the Crimson Diamond. I would like to set up an appointment with the curator. I think I have a few items that they would be interested in"

* * *

><p>Bianca gazed up at the marble building that stood ahead of her with a grim look of determination. With her cane gripped in one hand and her full carpet bag in the other, she was ready for her next objective: facing other human beings and convincing them to buy useless things from her. It could have been a lot worse for her; what little luck she possessed ensured that Louis had made some useful connections while he had still been around and the one that she was taking advantage of at the moment was the newly appointed curator of the museum. From what she had managed to pry out of the man she knew that the two had met when Louis was still respected in academia and that this mystery friend of his owed him quite a favor.<p>

'Well, it's not like he'll be calling in on any favors for himself any time soon.' she thought as the bitterness slithered its way back into her mind.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, she quickly ascended the front stairs and was through the large doors that led to the atrium. Her eyes adjusted from the bright mid after noon sun to the hardly lit museum and she glanced around for anyone that could point her in the right direction. There were a pair of men that seemed to be in the middle of lifting a heavy box into the next room that Bianca knew not to be disturbed. Besides those two, the only other human being in the room was a young woman, about Bianca's age, who was peering at a large statue in the center of the room. Taking a chance, she staggered over to the woman.

Now that she was closer, Bianca could see that the woman was pretty. In fact, a better word to describe her might be beautiful, stunning, breath taking, or makes every other woman in the room look like an utter ogre. Any one of those would do. A swell of jealousy ran through Bianca as she took in the woman's flawless skin, her flowing chestnut brown hair and, most of all, her unmarred figure. With a stern chastising to herself, the feelings were quickly squashed.

"Excuse me?" The woman spun around to face her. "I have a meeting with the curator. Do you know where his office is?"

The woman smiled warmly at Bianca and the jealousy gave a little bubble in the pit of her stomach. "That would be me. I'm Evelyn O=Connell. It's very nice to meet you." Evelyn held out her hand, but seemed to realize that Bianca's hands were full and quickly retracted it. "Would you like me to take that from you?" She said as she gestured to the carpet bag.

Bianca resisted the urge to refuse and decided to take the slight wound to her pride. "That would be lovely. It's a bit heavy." Eveline took the bag from her hands and made a face as she realized that Bianca had been right about the weight.

"My office is right this way." Evelyn began walking briskly down the corridor before adjusting her pace to accommodate the limping woman following her. She glanced over towards Bianca, seeming to evaluate her, before snapping her eyes back to the front. Bianca knew that she had been on the verge of offering more assistance or asking if she needed to rest. She had been asked those questions more times than she cared to count and could sense the signs of pity. She held her chin up just a fraction higher in silent protest.

When the two women finally reached their destination of the main office, Evelyn took her place behind the desk and motioned for Bianca to take the chair on the other side. She leaned her cane against the side of the chair and lowered herself into the plush armchair. Bianca cleared her throat, took a breath to calm her nerves, and began the speech that she had gone over in her head since that morning.

"My name is Bianca Chevelier and I work at the Crimson Diamond antique and oddities store here in the city. I am in the process of selling the shop and because of this I need to sell the majority of my wares. I understand that you and the store's former owner, Louis, were aquainted?" She waited for Evelyn's nod of conformation before continuing "I also understand that you were in his debt. I'm here today to call on that favor and ask that you would look at some of the samples that I've brought in today. If you think that they're worth buying, I'm offering them to you at a reduced price."

Bianca leaned back slightly in her chair and looked for Evelyn's reaction. To her surprise, she was met with a warm smile from the other woman. "You're quite the business woman, Ms Chevalier. I'm sure that Louis was very proud to call you his protege Bianca winced very slightly at the sound of his name coming from another's mouth. She was still getting used to saying it again herself.

"I'd like to think so."

Evelyn pulled the carpet bag onto her desk and went to open it. "I'm sure that there's something that we can work out here. I was always hearing from Louis about all the fantastic objects that he had managed to unearth; I can only imagine the treasures that you've seen while working with him." Bianca smiled at the woman as she watched her unload the artifacts from the bag and gingerly place them on the desk.

"That one he found in Italy, near Pompeii. That's gold inlay on the handle of the comb and ivory teeth. And that one's from Kenya, I believe. He was told that it was some kind of sacred figure and housed the soul of a goddess or something ridiculous like that. I can't understand how anyone believes in that sort of thing these days, can you?"

Evelyn simple looked at Bianca with a sly smile on her lips, one that seemed to say "you have no idea".

She went through each piece as they were pulled from the bag until there was only one left "This last one is the one that I really think that you'll be interested in."

Evi gasped as she laid eyes on the smooth, midnight black polished stone and ran her fingers over the engravings. It was even more magnificent when it wasn't under dingy florescent lighting. "It certainly is impressive. I would love to have a chance to translate these hieroglyphics completely. Do you know where he found it?"

Bianca knew then that she had a sale. "In a dig near Akhmim three years ago. Now that you've seen all that I have to offer, I was wondering if you'd like to discus the pricing?"

Just as the two women seemed to be getting down to business, they heard a large racket coming from the hallway.

"Evi? Evi? How on earth do you find anything in this bloody labyrinth?"

"Oh no." sighed Evelyn as she rubbed spun around to face the door way that the sound was emanating from. "Jonathan."

The word "Who?" was on the tip of Bianca's tongue as the man stumbled into the room and all but collapsed on to the desk, sending most of the artifacts rolling away. She quickly scrambled to stop any of them from falling from the table.

"There you are! Now Evi, that brute of a husband of yours has taken my wallet from me again! How am I supposed to go out and have myself a good time in this heap of sand and sun if I don't have a pound on me?" The man was turned away from Bianca and she wasn't really sure that he had noticed her at all.

"That's the point, Jonathan. We warned you not to get into any more trouble, but we still woke up with the police on our doorstep. Just like I warned you not to come into my office while I'm meeting with clients." Evelyn said in a firm voice as she looked pointedly behind her brother to the other woman sitting at the desk.

As the man turned to face her for the first time, Bianca took a moment to take in his tanned face, combed over hair and sparkling blue eyes. All in all, he looked like one of the boys that she had gone to school with. The kind of boy that pulled her hair and tugged on her skirts in the hallways. Her eyes involuntarily narrowed at the connection.

Seeming to not notice the tension in the room, Jonathan simply smiled and leaned closer to her. "Hello. You don't look like one of the old stuffy busy bodies that Evi usually has in here. What do you say that I save you from whatever torture that she's putting you through and we go get some drinks?"

His sister sighed. "No, Jonathan. She's here on a business meeting. Not a social visit that you can just waltz in and commandeer. Now if you'll excuse us." Evi waved towards the door and hoped that he would get her message. If he did, he ignored it completely.

He snatched one of the items that Bianca had brought: a small, south American, bronze cube and began tossing it from hand to hand. Bianca thought she was going to have a heart attack. "Now, now, sister. Didn't you ever learn that we must share our toys? And you didn't even ask your friend here what she wanted. Isn't that right, dear?"

Bianca stared up at him with the iciest glare that she could muster and said, "I'm here for business, sir. Now would you please put that down before you drop and break it?"

The man then did the last thing that she ever expected anyone to do after receiving one of her looks: he laughed. Bianca could feel the heat quickly flooding to her cheeks at the sound and the sight of him carelessly tossing the cube back onto the desk.

"You certainly do know how to find stuffy historians, don't you Evi?" The urge to stand up and punch the man square in his smug face seemed to quadruple. "Well, now that I'm here, I might as well add my own professional opinion to the mix."

Evelyn glanced at her guest with a worried eye and said "Jonathan, please. I'm trying to get work done."

"And I'm trying to help you! Let's see what we have here." He glanced across the desktop and seemed to not find anything that he was looking for. Then, his eyes landed on the exact object that Bianca had been praying would escape his notice. His hand quickly snaked around and grabbed the cane from its resting place leaning on the desk. He held it out in front of him, waving it like a baton, and began. "Seems like cherry wood, only about 50 years old, nice designs on the handle and bottom. They almost look like something that would be found in Celtic or Gaelic artwork. But it's definitely not museum worthy and definitely not worth being sold to you. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that your new friend was trying to dupe you, sister." He glanced over at Evi with a Cheshire grin. "And you say that I never payed attention to all those lectures. I know my treasure."

Bianca could barely feel her nails pressing against her palm so hard that there would be marks and she couldn't hear the sound of her teeth grinding together as she fought to keep the words from leaving her mouth. What she could feel was the fresh wave of anger that washed over her. Anger that this imbecile would dare suggest that she would try to pass of anything for less than it was, anger for the attention that he had drawn to her condition, and most of all anger at him for even laying a finger on that cane.

Her hands shot out and pulled the cane from his hands so fact that at first she didn't realize that it had happened. Like lighting, she was out of her seat and standing toe to toe with the rude man in front of her. Bianca took a deep breath as her mind reeled and tried to produce the words that would get her rage across. She drew a blank and was forced to settle with a glare. "I'm very sorry, but I really must go. You're free to keep the samples here to examine. You can find me at the store whenever you're ready with your decision.

With that, she turned and started for the door. After the second step, her leg seemed to buckle underneath her and she had to take a second to right herself again. She clenched her eyes closed as she realized her fault and the blood rushed to her head. "It was lovely meeting you Miss O'Connell. Goodbye." She scurried out of the room as quickly as she was able.

* * *

><p>Thank you anyone that read through this! Since this is my first published piece on this site I would love any comments or critiques that you have. Even little things like "oh that one word in paragraph two, line four really didn't sit well with me" would be lovely. I would especially like to know about the pacing. Was it too fast, too slow, smack dab in the middle? Please tell!<p> 


	2. Chapter Two: Visitors of all Kinds

Chapter Two: Visitors of all Kinds

Bianca was still fuming when she reached the shop. Her brows seemed to have been permanently knitted to form her scowl and her lips were pursed tightly together. By the time she had unlocked the door and stepped inside she had gone over everything that she had done and every possible alternative that would have been better at least million times better. She stormed through the front room, only pausing a split second to throw her now empty carpet bag onto her desk, and went straight to her living quarters.

The room was modest and clean and just the way that she wanted it. The only real furniture were her rickety old bed and the dresser that held her limited wardrobe. A few photographs here and there on the walls added the slight personal touch that made it all her own.

She slumped down on the bed as soon as she entered the room, letting her cane fall to the floor with a 'bang'. Running her hand over her hair in a vain attempt to smooth down the fly aways that had already escaped, Bianca took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. She had reacted badly. She knew that, and she was sure that everyone else that had been in the room had known that.

'I never should have walked out of the meeting like that.' she thought as she cradled her head in her hands. 'I wouldn't be surprised if Miss O'Connell came by to tell me that she's not interested in dealing business with drama queens that pick fights with her brother.' Bianca's jaws tightened at the thought of him. 'Even if her brother happens to be the biggest prat I've met in years.'

One of the pictures on her dresser caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She reached over and grabbed the small metal frame and gazed down at the image inside. The face of a man smiled back up at her, showing his bright white teeth fully. With his graying hair and the wrinkles that were just beginning to form he looked like he could be anyone's father.

'You should have seen me in there, Louis. I botched this one up so badly you would never ever believe it.' She sighed and placed the picture down on the mattress beside her. 'Maybe it's better that you weren't there to see that train wreck.'

Flinging her arms out to the side in what she hoped was the most dramatic manner possible, she fell back onto the bed and closed her eyes. The old mattress groaned in protests as she wiggled slightly, trying to find the one comfortable spot left. After a few more calming breaths to clear her mind, she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p>It was very early morning when she was awoken by the soft sound of bells ringing from the front room. The only light that filtered into the room came from the liver of sun that had just crossed over the horizon and the well lit houses that surrounded the shop. She shot up, much to the protest of her knee, and looked around wildly. She had locked the door behind her, she was sure of it, and the 'closed' sign was hung predominantly from the front window like it had been all week.<p>

She held her breath as she waited for another noise. Seconds passed excruciatingly slowly and the silence seemed almost unearthly. Even the hustle of the busy outside streets seemed more muffled than usual. She didn't hear anything more.

'You're being silly! There's no one there! Why on earth would anyone even think about breaking into a dirty little run down-' Her mental scolding was cut short by the sound of the floor boards creaking in the next room.

Her hand flew to her mouth to stop the squeak from escaping her lips and she seemed to jump right out of her skin.

'Oh my god, there's someone there. There's someone in the shop. There's someone in the shop and they're going to kill me.' Scenarios raced through her mind like lighting, each one more gruesome than the last until she was bolted out of her mind by something that sounded like a whisper just outside the door.

Her eyes darted around the room, searching for anything that she could use as a weapon. She came up with nothing. With no better ideas, she slowly reached down and pried her cane from the floor. She almost had it completely in her hands when she leaned too far out, causing the bed to let out what seemed to be the loudest creak it had ever made. Her heart plummeted down to meet with her stomach.

The intruders seemed to have given up on stealth and came barging into her bedroom all at once. In a moments time. she was facing two enormous men leering down at her. Dressed all in black and with what seemed to be at least a pistol for each limb, they looked like something straight out of a story book.

Bianca scrambled back onto the bed and held the cane out like a sword in front of her. "Please. I don't have anything! Please just go!" she pleaded with the men.

One, the largest of the two barked an order to the others in a language that she didn't recognize. The other immediately leapt into action, swiping her weapon away and grabbing her by the arm and pulling her from the mattress. She gasped in pain as her feet hit the floor and her leg twisted to the side, sending stabs through her entire body. The men didn't give her time to gather herself before shoving her to the side as their leader gave them more orders. Bianca barely had time to brace herself before her knees gave out and she fell to the ground.

She clenched her eyes closed in a mixture of pain and fear as she heard the men moving around her, all of them shouting at the others. Bianca watched as the men tore into her belongings, tossing her dresser drawers open and spilling out its content, sweeping every single item from her shelves and pulling picture frames from the walls. There must have been more than the two because she soon heard the sound of crashing coming from the main room. She twisted around just in time to see one of the shelves holding the merchandise falling to the floor, its contents scattering everywhere and most shattering into a million pieces. Bianca had to bite down on her bottom lip tightly to stop her from uttering the words that fought to jump out.

The rage that flowed through her was silenced at the feeling of a rough hand clenched down on her shoulder and being spun around to face her assailant. She looked up at the man's scarred and tanned face with complete, utter terror. After what seemed to have been ages of waiting, he finally spoke. "Where is it?"

"What?" The word barely came out as a faint whisper. She watched as the man's eyes glinted with something that seemed to be a mixture of impatience and something far darker.

He turned and yelled something in his strange tongue towards the main room and his words were almost immediately followed by the crash of yet another shelve falling to the floor. No. Those are mine. I _need _them.'

Bianca was struggling to stand and run to save the artifacts before the thought even had a chance to register as a very bad idea. The man clenched down on her shoulder hard enough to make her yelp in pain before he pushed her back down to the ground. He seemed to struggle with forming the words before he spoke again. "Tell us and we won't have to hurt anything else."

She was shaking by that point, her hands vibrating against the floor and her teeth chattering almost audibly. "I don't know what you're talking about! Please, you have to believe me!" she pleaded. "Just leave!"

His lips turned up into a sneer at the sight of her groveling and it almost seemed as though he would strike her. Whatever he was going to do was cut short by yet another man appearing in the doorway. After a quick nod to their leader, he began to speak rapidly. An actual growl sounded from the leader at whatever he had been told.

"One more time. Where is the stone?" the man asked her the same way you might speak to a very dull child. Recognition sparked in her brain. 'Stone? He couldn't mean...Could he?'

"W-was it black? With strange markings all over?" Bianca looked up almost hopefully at the man. When he nodded it felt as though a weight had been lifted up from her chest. "I took it to be appraised! Is that all you wanted? I swear I don't have it."

The man instantly dropped the hand that had been grasping her shoulder and took a few steps back. The men that had been searching her room stopped what they were doing and looked expectantly at the leader. "Where did you take it?"

Oh, god. What do they want it for? Should I tell them? I could lie and tell them the wrong place! They would leave, but what about when they find out that I lied?' Doubt floated to the front of Bianca's mind for a moment before her self-preservation won out. "The Cairo Museum."

The man looked satisfied. He turned to the two men still in the room and gave them their orders before vanishing from the room just as quickly as her had appeared. Bianca could only sit in shock as she heard a few final crashes of the last of her items being thrown to the floor. What did I just do?'

She was so in shock that she hardly noticed it when one of the men simply walked behind her and bludgeoned her with the hilt of his dagger. She was unconscious before she even hit the ground.

* * *

><p>"Honestly, I don't understand why we're doing this."<p>

Rick gripped the steering wheel even tighter than usual as he made the sharp turn onto the next city block. His passenger had asked the same question about fifty different ways since they had piled into the car. "Because Evy told us to. She said that it was an emergency so we're going."

Jonathan rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to make a joke about his sister having her husband on a tighter leash than he thought, and instead settled on "Well, yes, I know that's why you're up at this ungodly hour in the morning, but I still can't see what that has to do with me."

His brother in-law didn't answer and instead chose to concentrate on the road in front of them and blocking out the Englishmen's voice. Jonathan sighed and rested his head on his hand in hopes of maybe catching up on the sleep that he was missing at that exact moment. He hadn't seen six o'clock in the morning in quite some time and he was hardly ever sober enough to really remember it.

The city around them seemed to be on the verge of waking up. Shop keepers were opening up their doors and setting up their wares and constructing their outdoor market-like tents. A few lone men seemed to be staggering home from the local dive of a pub. Jonathan would have traded most anything to be one of them instead of being dragged off to who knows where to ask a woman that he didn't like about something he cared nothing about.

The silence of the morning and his driving partner seemed to unnerve the man so he attempted to start up a conversation once again. "What on earth could Evy want with the girl that couldn't wait?"

"Look, all I know is that Evy was working late last night, trying to translate some new artifact or something, and the next thing I know she's waking me up and telling me that she needs to speak with some Chevalier lady right that instant. If you think that I wanted to be chauffeur for the day, you've got it all wrong."

Instead of doing what Rick had hoped and simply dropping the topic and returning to the comfortable quiet, Jonathan decided to keep going. "Did she tell you about the woman that we're going to meet? She's a hellcat if I ever saw one. She snapped at me just for being polite! Although, she did sound a bit French, so that might explain it."

Rick chose not to tell him that Evy had already filled him in with all the details from their meeting the afternoon before and had told him that she would have congratulated the woman for standing up to her brother if she hadn't run from the room so fast. Instead, he chose to change the subject completely. "I think this is the street Evy said it would be."

He expertly turned the car down the one way street. He took an apprehensive glance at the piles of trash that crowded the sides and at the rundown buildings that surrounded them. It was most definitely not the first place you would look for an antique shop.

Just as he was about to turn the car around and escape the alley way, he caught sight of the weathered sign hanging above one of the stores that read "The Crimson Diamond." He pulled the vehicle off to the side as much as he could in what seemed to be a six foot wide space and jumped out. Jonathan followed suit.

Rick leaned down and tried to peer through the dusty front windows, but the only thing that greeted him was his own reflection. He glanced back at the sulking Jon before knocking a few times on the door. When no one answered him, he knocked a few times before it turned more into pounding. "I did not drive all the way here before the sun was up just to turn around." he muttered under his breath.

Finally, he gave up on formalities and twisted the door knob. To his surprise, the door swung open as he did and the cheery chime above welcomed them into the shop.

"She's not going to like us just barging in like this, you know. I wouldn't be surprised if...my God."

Jonathan's words trailed off to a finish as what he was looking at finally clicked in his mind. Every single shelf that had once filled the room now lay on the ground with their contents spilling out. Bits and pieces of glass and ceramics were scattered across the floor along with hundreds of jade beads that had been freed from their string. It was as though a war had passed through the room.

While Jonathan stood in the doorway simply taking in the sight before him, Rick jumped into action. "Ms. Chevalier? Anybody here?" He called out as he moved towards the back, taking care not to step on or damage anything even further. When he didn't get any reply from the store's owner, he continued father into the store until he came to the back room. He pushed open the flimsy wooden door, cringing at the screeching noise that it made, and stepped in.

The first thing he saw was the body laying on the floor, angled and twisted like a broken doll. In the few seconds that it took to move to her he noticed that this room had been destroyed just like the previous had been. As he knelt down next to the woman he heard Jonathan move in behind him. Rick pressed his fingers gingerly to her throat and let out a sigh of relief when he felt the faint, but still present, pulse.

"What the hell happened here?" Jonathan mused as he watched his brother in law pull Bianca up so that her head was supported more and started to try and rouse her. He took a moment to take in the state of the room. Clothing and ruined shreds of cloth had been tossed around like confetti, and the mirror that must have once hung from the wall was now more like something you would see in a carnival fun house. A small noise alerted him and drew his attention back to the woman.

She looked so completely different from the woman that he had bumped heads with just the other afternoon that he had a hard time believing it was really her. Her former scowl had been replaced by a soft look of peace and the strawberry hair that had been so tame yesterday now tumbled free in tight ringlets. Before he had a chance to observe her anymore, she rolled her head to the side and her eyes began to flicker behind their lids.

He heard Rick say "Ms. Chevalier. Come on, you have to wake up now." in a voice that Jon could tell held forced calmness.

Bianca opened her eyes and stared blankly up at the two men. 'What happened?' her thoughts came slowly as if her brain had been filled with fog. 'Who is that? Where am I? A hospital? But they don't look like doctors...'

Her focus seemed to jump between the two, confusion building up until she settled on Jonathan. The memories clicked together in her mind and her gaze steeled. She attempted to spring into a sitting position only to be pushed back down by the man that was supporting her.

"Hey! Easy there! My name is Rick. Rick O'Connell; Evelyn's husband." the man said. She tore her eyes away from the familiar man and focused on the second. She tried to find her voice, to ask him what had happened to her and why that rummy rat was within three yards from her, but all she could do was lay there with her mouth hanging open like a gasping fish. In a last ditch attempt to save face she decided to at least close her mouth.

She managed to get out a garbled "My head hurts." The man she didn't recognize reached out towards her skull, waited for her nod of approval, and gingerly felt the skin under her hair. She winced in pain as he brushed over a sore spot. Thankfully, there wasn't any blood on his fingers when he pulled them back.

"You have quite the bump growing back there, but nothing too bad. Can you sit up?" She nodded yes and pushed herself into a sitting position with her back resting against the bed frame. After the vertigo had faded, she saw what had become of her once pristine room. 'Oh my god...' Memories fought to surface and remnants of emotions bobbed up. Fear mixed with guilt spread across her heart even if she didn't know why.

"Attagirl! Just don't knock your head anymore and you'll be right as rain," Said Jonathan as he knelt down beside her. She shot him a scowl before returning her attention back to the man.

Do you know what happened?"

"We were hoping you would tell us that." He looked around the room and at the damage that had been done. "It looks like you either had quite the party here or someone broke in."

She shook her head absently as more memories bubbled up: men in black, knives, and crashing sounds. "I...I think someone was was here. A lot of them. They wanted something from me, I think." she trailed off as she fought to remember. Suddenly, it all came together in her mind. "Oh, no."

The men glanced at each other in confusion at her comment. Bianca reached up and rubbed at her head as if she could banish the headache that was beginning to form. "The tablet. That's what they wanted! They wanted that black stone that I found the other day!"

An unsettling feeling began to grow in Rick's stomach as he processed this new information. "This wouldn't happen to be the same tablet that my wife has at this moment, would it?"

She swallowed audibly. "Yes."

"But I know that you didn't tell the scary men that broke in, destroyed your home and knocked you unconscious where to find the tablet, right?" His voice practically dripped venom.

Bianca found that the ability to speak had left her once again and she was reduced to staring at a speck on the floor. Rick stood up abruptly. "Come on, Jonathan."

Bianca shot her gaze up to look at him. "What? You're just leaving? What am I supposed to do?" Her voice sounded high pitched and whiny even to herself.

"Well, Miss, right now I really couldn't care less what you do because I have to go save my wife from men that you set on her." Her eyes widened as he walked out of the room and Jonathan rose to go after him. She caught his gaze as he did so, but instead of the sympathy that she had hoped for, all she got was a shrug of he shoulders from the man.

She heard Rick moving through the shop, this time not even bothering to step over or around the pieces of artifacts that lay scattered in his path.

"Hey!" she yelled out as Jon left the room as well. She scrambled to grab her cane from where it had been thrown hours earlier and quickly got to her feet. Her bad leg screamed in pain as she tried to hobble after the two; it refused to bend at all after a night of being abused and twisted. "You can't leave me here!"

She watched as Rick paused at the front door, his hand resting on the handle. He didn't turn to look at her as he spoke. "Don't take this the wrong way, lady, but why the hell should I do anything to help you?"

Thoughts of what to say to the American sprung to her mind. Because her life line was in shambles. Because she might be responsible for harm to his wife and she would never be able the forgive herself if she didn't at least try. Because she had seen the men before and might be helpful because of that. Because she didn't want to be alone.

"I can help."

She could see the man thinking things over in his head for a few excruciatingly long moments. "Alright. Hurry up."

And with that, Bianca followed the strangers out of the shop and into the awakening Cairo street.

* * *

><p>I am so sorry about the long wait for this chapter! The flash drive that held this one and the next three chapters along with the planning was broken last week so it might take a while to get them rewritten and edited. Thank you everyone for the great feedback that I got from the last one! I know that there's a lot that I can improve in this one, so don't be afraid to let me know.<p>

Edit: Apparently my computer has started changing random punctuation marks into equal signs. It's a little game that me and Computer like to play; it keeps me on my toes. If you notice any thing odd like that I would love it if you let me know. Thanks!


	3. Chapter 3: Mum, Girl, Love

Chapter Three: Mum, Love, Girl

The silence seemed to have the occupants of the car in an iron grip as they sped through the city streets. Any sense of safety seemed to have been flung out the window as the vehicle roared through every intersection and skidded around corners at break neck speed. Bianca had to bite her lip to stop the reprimands from jumping out. She was on thinner ice than physically possible at the moment and she hoped to have a chance to redeem herself before the morning was over.

Thinking back the break in, she began to plan ahead. 'There couldn't have been more than ten men last night. And Mr. O'Connell seems like he could handle at least five with his hands tied behind his back, so that would leave the rest to Jonathan. There might even be a few guards at the museum this early too!' That seemed to brighten her mood a bit.

With that thought tucked into the back of her mind, Bianca took a moment to look over her temporary companions. As much as she tried, she couldn't imagine that the rugged man sitting in front of her was the husband of the gentle woman that she met the previous afternoon. The way his eyes glinted when she admitted her mistake and had realized that his wife was in danger made Bianca more nervous than she would admit.

Her other companion wasn't nearly as much of a mystery to her. Years and years of summer homes and social get togethers had conditioned her to recognize his type: the playboy fooling around with daddy's money with a different woman on their arm every night. Even with the news of his sister's danger Jon still managed to hold onto that slightly smug look that hadn't left his face in the time that they had known each other. At any other time, Bianca would have paid good money to see that look swiped right off his face.

Bianca ran a hand through her hair, trying to push the mass of curls out of her face. 'I'll have to tie that back if they're expecting me to fend of a gang of thieves.' she thought dryly.

"You're awfully quiet back there, love. Are you sure you aren't going to fall asleep on us?"

She looked at the man who was now twisted around in his seat entirely so that he could face her. She was tempted to ask how it was that he could even move in the rolling car, but she thought that Rick might take her comment as the insult to his driving that it was. Instead she turned her gaze back out the window and said "I'm fine, thank you."

Bianca could hear the man snort even over the screeching tires and the shouting of pedestrians in the car's way. She whipped her head back to face him with her glare once again painted on her face. "Did you say something, Mr Carnahan?"

Jonathan's smirk grew into a full on grin. "No, of course not. I'd never dream of it! I was just thinking about where that politeness was yesterday. If I remember correctly, you were quite the snapper."

She felt her fingers tighten around the handle of her cane and her teeth gnash together. "And if I remember correctly, someone in that room couldn't manage to keep his hands away from things that were not his."

Rick's eyes flickered from the street to the bickering couple through the rear view mirror with interest. Bianca caught his gaze for a split second and was a quite proud when her glare sent his eyes straight back to the road in front of them.

'How dare he say something like that to me! That smug, arrogant, idiot.' She silently fumed in her seat as she plotted the many possible ways that she could prove that she was better than him in most aspects.

Thankfully for every one in the car, their destination was in view and within seconds the car was pulling up along the curb. Rick leapt from the car and was up the steps like lightning while the other two had a move difficult time. Bianca flung open the door and reached out to grab the door frame for leverage, but quickly found that it was too far for her to grab onto and pull herself from the seat. She bit down on her bottom lip as her mind raced through the chances of her being able to stand up using one leg.

"You need some help there, Mum?"

Pride reared its ugly head for a moment as the words 'no, leave me alone' shot to her brain. Instead she grasped the man's hand and, with a great amount of help from him, hoisted herself to her feet. She pulled her arm back to her side like it had been burned. She remembered her new goal of proving herself more civil than him and nodded briskly in place of a verbal thank you.

Jonathan paused to let Bianca get a few steps of a head start before he began following her towards the building. She clenched and unclenched her free hand to try to calm her racing heart and nerves. As they reached the open door she glanced towards the man and managed to find a bit of comfort in seeing him as placid as usual. 'Although, the flask that hasn't left his hand might have something to do with that.'

The atrium was just as quiet as when she first entered; the only change was the lack of human life besides Rick. He motioned for the other two to join him by the hallway that Evy had used to get to her office.

"How do we even know that Mrs. O'Connell is even here?" she whispered as they made their way through the dimly lit room. "What if she's at home and the thieves show up there instead?"

While Jonathan simply shrugged, Rick answered her question, "She stayed up all night trying to translate that damn rock of yours. When she sent me to find you she was on her way here for some of the few books that we don't have at home. Knowing her, she's gotten sidetracked at least five times by now."

Seeing that the woman was satisfied with his explanation he continued onto the next task. "Do you know how to shoot?"

Bianca looked at the man strangely while her brain struggled to comprehend what she had just been asked. "Do I...What? Why would I know that?"

"You're the one that said that you could be useful." He pulled out a small handgun from his satchel and held it out to her. Seeing her hesitation he said "It's either take the gun and be useful or go back, sit in the car and wait for us to come back."

"Now, why isn't that an option for me?"

Bianca ignored Jonathan's remarks and reached out gingerly for the weapon. It felt unnaturally heavy in her hand. Rick seemed to be impressed with her choice. "Just don't point it at anything that you don't want to blast a hole in and we'll all be fine."

She saw Jonathan pulling his own small pistol from his pocket and asked, "Are you two always armed to the teeth?"

Her question was ignored by both the men as Rick started down the narrow hallway, followed by Jon and with Bianca at the rear. Her mind raced with constant reminders as she walked: don't step too loudly, make sure the cane doesn't bump into anything, keep your ears open, don't shoot anyone. The only thing that she had forgotten was 'watch where you're going'.

Bianca found herself bumping into Jonathan's back as their train of people came to a hault. She jumped back and swung her gun hand up in suprise, but quickly lowered it again as she realized what had happened. Rick turned to face the other two, holding a finger to his lips as a signal to stop making such a racket. As Binca took a moment to listen she noticed the sound of banging and papers being shuffled around coming from the next door way. She knew that it was to one that led to Evelyn's office.

She watched as Rick leaned closer to the door way, his hand slowly pulling back on the safety lock on his pistol. She thought about doing the same, but realized that the chance that she would actually be able to hit anything that she wanted to shoot was slim, so she simply left the weapon hanging limply by her side. Bianca pressed herself closer to the wall in an attempt to listen in on what ever was happening. The movement stopped.

'They can't know that we're here already.'

As Rick started to take a step foreword, a voice sounded from the next room. "Oh, for heaven's sake! I know that I put that book right here! Where could it have gone?"

The men visibly relaxed at the sound of the distinctly feminine voice that they all recognized. With a nod of his head to signal that the other two were to follow him, Rick stepped out of the hallway. Bianca stumbled after the two.

Evelyn didn't seem to even notice the party as it entered the room. Her head was literally stuck inside one of the many boxes the lay around her office space. She seemed to be looking for something in particular and was almost throwing everything else from the box in her search.

"Evelyn?" her husband said.

Her head shot up and she spun around. Her eyes were as wide as saucers as she took in the view in front of her. Bianca smiled tightly as the woman's eyes set on her with confusion written on her face. "What are you..." her mind seemed to make some connection. "Oh, that's right! I'm so glad that you came on such short notice!"

Bianca watched as the woman flitted around the room, picking up books and scraps of paper and adding them to the growing pile on her desk. "That tablet that you brought in yesterday really got me thinking, you know. I was so sure that I had seen something like it in a book once so I got to work looking and it turns out that I was right! Have you ever heard of Ramesses the Great or his son Setna?"

"Evelyn, this really isn't the time." said Rick.

She ignored him and continued on her rambling. "Well, in one account of his reign that I read ages ago it spoke of his son's quest to find an ancient book that had been lost for years. The story was embellished quite a bit in the years, but there was supposedly some truth behind it. Anyway, the important part is that in the end-"

"Evelyn!"

She halted thought and turned to her husband with a look is disbelief. "Excuse me?"

"We have a bit of a problem."

Bianca watched as the woman's demeanor took a complete one eighty, turning from the school girl like giddiness of finding something important to grave. "What happened? Are you alright?"

Rick took his wife by the shoulder and began leading her to her seat at her desk. "Everyone here is fine, but I don't think that Miss Chevalier's store is going to recover anytime soon."

At the mentioning of her shop, Bianca suddenly took an intense interest in the books on the shelf next to her. She made sure that she was turned away with no chance of catching Evy's eye as Rick filled her in on what happened. She half listened as he told his wife about the state of the store when he and Jonathan arrived and about how they had found Bianca unconscious.

Bianca glanced over at Jonathan leaning against the wall a few feet away, hoping for any distraction from what the other two were talking about. He caught her stares and flashed one of his cheeky grins at her before he turned his own attention back to his family.

She snapped her head back to study the titles that she had already gone over two times before.

'Rulers of the First Empire, Napoleon's Conquest, Julius Caesar, I'd be surprised if she didn't have every book remotely related to this hell hole of a country.' she mused as she looked over the rows of hardbacks.

Rick had paused his narration, and she took that as her cue to step back into the conversation. "So, they know that the tablet is here?" Evelyn asked.

Bianca winced. "Yes, that's right." The heads of everyone in the room swung to face her and for a moment she regretted opening her mouth. "That happened at about dawn, so I don't understand why they haven't shown up here yet. Not that I'm complaining of course."

Evy looked at her thoughtfully. "You're right, there's no need for them to wait if they want the tablet. Unless they were waiting for some sort of signal or a sign..." She grabbed one of the brick like books that she had stacked on her desk and began flipping through it rapidly.

Jonathan seemed to appear out of thin air behind her, peeking over her shoulder at the words as she read. "What on earth could possibly be in that dusty old thing that's going to help us stop a gang of blood thirsty thugs? I mean, it's no Book of the Dead, Old Mum."

Bianca watched in confusion as a small smile spread over Evelyn's lips at what must have been an inside joke with the family.

"I'm looking for the passage that talks about the fable that I was telling you about. I know that a group of guards were sworn to secrecy over the whole thing, but the way you described the men that attacked Miss Bianca they really don't fit. And I would say that they could be the Priests of Khemennu if they hadn't died out some time in the late 21st dynasty." she mumbled more to herself than anyone else in the room.

A strange feeling began bubbling in the pit of Bianca's stomach as she listened to the woman's rambling. She took a few steps away from the desk and towards the large windows that dotted the opposite side of the room. Outside, the city was finally fully awake.

Bianca leaned forward rested her forehead against the cool window pane. She held her eyes closed as the feeling grew. It was as if something was pulling on her insides, like when she knew that she had forgotten something, but couldn't remember just what yet. The conversation behind her faded away as the feeling crescendoed. Waves seemed to crash against the walls of her insides as her whole body began to squirm.

Her eyes shot open. In the reflection in the mirror she caught sight of something moving away just as she opened her eyes. She spun around to catch it before it was gone again, but was met with only the faces of the three others in the room. The feeling was gone.

"Are you alright?" asked Evy.

Bianca shook her head lightly and said, "No, no, I'm fine. I just thought I saw something, that's all."

Much to her surprise, Rick's hand shot to the holster at his hip and his hand lit on the pistol inside. "Where was it?"

"Really, it was just my imagination! I didn't get that good of a nights sleep last night, remember?"

"Oh, for heaven's sake girl, just tell him so he can go and save the day like always." barked Jonathan from his new perch on top of Evy's desk.

"I'm telling you that it was nothing! But if you want to go waste your time on some goose chase then you go right ahead." Bianca said as she turned back to the window in a huff. From the reflection she could see Rick looking at her with exasperation before exiting the room. Evelyn seemed to ponder what to do for a moment before she hurried after her husband. That left just her and Jonathan. 'Oh, lovely.'

Her hand began twirling her cane as she watched the man pull out the silver flask from his jacket and took a swig. She scrunched her nose in disgust. 'It's not even eight in the morning yet and he's already hitting the bottle.'

"So, are you always hallucinating, or is this a new thing?"

Bianca spun around like a top. She could feel the heat rise to her cheeks. That seemed to be happening more and more when she was around the insufferable man. "What did you say?"

"I was just wondering." he held his hands up in defense, one of them still clutching the flask. "There's no need to get so defensive, Love."

"I have a name you know, and it's not Mum, Girl, Love, or any other ridiculous pet names that you might come up with."

He swung his legs up so that he was practically lounging on his sister's desk. "But Bianca is such a stuffy name! I feel older just saying it. I'm sure someone has come up with a better name for you than that."

"No." she answered just a second to quickly. He grinned as her expression became more flustered.

Instead of pressing the matter like she thought he would, he said, "I haven't heard any ungodly commotion coming from Rick and Evy yet. You wouldn't be too heart broken if I left for just a minute to make sure they aren't dead, would you?"

A minuscule smile snuck its way onto her lips. "Go right ahead." She watched as he strolled out the door as if he didn't have a care in the world.

The very moment that he was out of sight, the feeling in her core returned tenfold. She stumbled for a second as she fought to regain balance and to force the feeling away. She grasped the corner of the desk with one hand and planted the cane into the carpet with the other. Practically crumpled over the table, she took a deep breath and tried to lift herself again. Pain seemed to ripple through her with every movement. Not even her lungs would cooperate to yell for someone, anyone, to come back for her.

A sound to her side made her pry her eyes open and tilt her head towards it. What she saw made her heart jump into her throat. Standing just a few feet away, close enough to reach out and touch if she wanted, was the gaunt figure of a man.

'Oh, my God.'

* * *

><p>I tried to include more interaction between Bianca and Jonathan in this part, but I think that I snubbed the others because of this. Whoops.<p>

Also, is it easier for the reader if thoughts are in italics? I've seen them done many ways and it really doesn't make a difference with me. Thanks for reading as always! Feedback would be lovely.


	4. Chapter 4: By the Might of Horus

Chapter Four: By the Might of Horus, You Will Kneel Before Us

Dressed in a dark business suit and with thin wired glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, the man standing in front of her looked like any of the upper class men that Bianca had seen over the years. He would have been completely indistinguishable from the others if it were not for his ruddy, tanned skin and the flashy gold jewelry that gleamed from what seemed to be every inch of flesh that wasn't covered. She found her eyes being drawn to the especially large pendant that lay in the center of his chest.

The man took a step closer to her and she felt a stab of pain in the pit of her stomach. A slick smile spread over his lips as she flinched and fought to open her mouth to scream. However, as hard she tried, she couldn't manage to force her vocals to obey her command and found herself gasping instead.

His slender fingers reached up to the necklace tracing over the intricate design before resting on the sapphire gem in the very center. "The Great Eye of Isis. It's quite the trinket is it not?" His voice was heavenly accented, similar to the dialect of the brutes from before, but somehow more refined. "You can stop trying to speak; I wont let you."

She set her mouth into a grim line and looked at him with all the contempt and rage she could muster.

He began to walk slowly and deliberately around her. She was reminded of a serpent coiling around its prey just before it strikes. "I honestly expected better from you, Miss Chevalier." Her face must have betrayed the shock of hearing her own name. "Do you really think that I would not know who you are? You're either too arrogant for your own good or very, very naive." The man paused behind her, leaning in close enough that the hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention.

Bianca shuddered at the closeness and shook her head slowly. She had no idea who the man was or even what he could be talking about.

He continued, "When my men reported that the tablet wasn't in your possession I thought that they must have been mistaken. There was no way that you would be so foolish as to let it go. Apparently, I was wrong." He had walked a full rotation around Bianca and now stood directly in front, looking down his thin, pointed nose at the girl struggling to keep her knees from buckling.

The man cocked his head to the side slightly, as if he was seeing her for the first time. "You honestly have no idea what is happening, do you? You poor thing." His voice dripped with bitter sarcasm.

Bianca could feel the energy leaving her, being sapped out of her by some power that she couldn't begin to comprehend. Spots and dots of darkness began to cloud her vision and she had to fight to keep them at bay.

Her mind became muddled. 'Where's Rick? Or Evy? They know what to do.' The small thought bobbed up in the back of her memory as her brain fought to come up with something that would stop what ever was going on.

"Do not try to fight off the sleep, Miss Chevalier. You are only making it worse for yourself." The idea of simply closing her eyes came to her; it would be better for all of them, wouldn't it?

She watched as the man lightly ran a hand over the black stone tablet that lay on the desk beside them. He held it up gingerly, as if her was afraid that it would burn him at any second. "How long did that imbecile have this in his shop? Years? And he never even told you its true worth. Maybe he didn't trust you as much as you thought."

Her eyes shot open. The man's words struck her like a punch to the gut. 'Louis? What the hell does this snake know about Louis? How dare he say anything about him?' It was as if a fire had been lit under her. The new found energy gave her the strength to push herself off of the desk. The man's face morphed to a merely bemused one as he watched her struggle. "Did that hit a nerve?"

With out even thinking about what she was doing, her hand reached down to her skirt pocket and pulled out the unfamiliar weapon that she had concealed there what seemed like years ago. His expression didn't falter as she raised the pistol up and pulled the trigger.

She could see the bullet's path as if time had stopped to a stand still. It shot out from the barrel and traveled directly towards the man, and hit him square in the chest, just underneath where his amulet lay. It didn't stop there. She watched as the small bit of metal fazed through him like there was nothing in its way. She could hear the sound of the bullet crashing into the wall behind him, leaving a small, round hole in its wake.

"Did you think that was going to work?"

Bianca dropped the weapon the floor in surprise. 'Why didn't it hurt him? Why didn't it do anything?' She stumbled back a few feet before collapsing onto the carpet. The last burst of energy had been burned out of her and now it felt as though she hadn't had a chance to rest in a thousand years. The man ignored the woman that now lay crumpled at his feet and instead focused fully on the stone that he held in his hands after so many years of waiting.

As Bianca fought to keep herself awake she could hear the sound of muffled voices. She strained to understand what they were saying, but it was as if she was under water. The man seemed to hear the voices as well. He cocked his head towards its source, then carefully tucked the tablet under his arm and strode around her. He paused when he reached the door. "You really are a disappointment, you know. Be sure to tell old Louis that Apophis says 'Hello' when you see him in the afterlife. I'm sure that wont be that long from now."

He was gone as suddenly as he had appeared.

* * *

><p>Bianca came to as if she had been dreaming. Time seemed to speed up and her senses seemed to explode. She could feel her chest tightening and her heart pounding like a drum as the room spun around her. When it finally stopped, she was looking up at the crowd of people standing above her. She tried to ask what had happened, but all she could manage to do was loll her head to the side and let out a faint wheezing cough. Her throat felt as if it had been filled with a handful of desert sand.<p>

"Miss Chevalier? Are you alright? You two, stop crowding around her so much. Give her some air." Evy ordered. The two men stepped away to the corner of Bianca's vision.

Bianca took in a fresh gasp of air and managed to speak. "There was someone here. A man."

"We didn't see anyone on the way here. We heard the bang, though. Was that you?" Rick asked.

"I...I shot him." She twisted her head to the side and looked over at where the man had been standing as if his body could have miraculously appeared since the last time she looked. It hadn't.

"That was good, Miss Chevalier. Rick, if he's injured he can't have gone that far, right? Why don't you go and-"

Bianca shook her head. "No, he's not. It went through him. Like he was a ghost or something. He knew about Louis. He said that I didn't know anything." Her speech trailed off into another coughing fit.

Jonathan lifted an eyebrow at the woman laying on the carpet. "You sure this isn't just another one of your fits? Maybe you hit your head harder than we thought last night?"

Bianca jerked up to the protest of Evy and her aching body. "You think that I'm making this up?" she hissed. The man shrugged. She watched as Evelyn's expression changed to one of almost pity. As her rage began to boil, she remembered something that would prove her to be right. "The stone! He took that damn tablet with him. Look, it's not there anymore, is it?"

Evy visibly paled at her words. She shot from where she had been kneeling above Bianca and was standing at her desk within seconds. Bianca could hear the sound of papers being shoved aside and the entire desk top being torn apart in her search for the item that wasn't there. She closed her eyes for a moment when she heard Evy curse beneath her breath.

"It's not here."

Bianca resisted the urge to say 'I told you I wasn't crazy'. She accepted Rick's hand when he offered it and pulled herself up off of the floor. He left her almost immediately to stand closer to his wife. She noticed Jonathan take a swig from his flask and nearly asked him if she could have a taste as well. Anything that might calm her racing nerves would be welcome.

She didn't have time to ask.. "Who was this man that you saw? Did he say anything? Was he Egyptian or was he a foreigner? There was only one man this time, right?" Evelyn barraged her with questions, shooting them at her so fast that she hardly had a chance to process them before the next one was asked.

Jonathan came to her rescue. "One at a time, Evy. I'm sure that our brain damaged friend here would be happy to answer any of your questions if you ask them slowly enough."

Bianca chose to ignore the jab that was hidden in his words. "Yes, it was only one man this time. He seemed different than the others somehow, like maybe he was in charge of them." she thought for a moment before continuing. "He had some kind of amulet that he talked about. He called it the eye of Isis or something.

Evy was flipping through one of her tomes before Bianca even finished her sentence. "He said his name was Apophis."

The other woman glanced up from the page that she was skimming for a moment. "Apophis is the Greek name of Apep, the snake that battled with Ra every evening when the sun set. It would be rare to find someone that would purposefully name their own child after the god of darkness."

Rick snorted. "Says the same woman that wants to name her own children Horus and Osiris.

"That is completely different!"

Bianca couldn't help but forget about their situation for just a moment to smile at the couple's banter. A soft poke to the back of her leg pulled her attention away from their entertainment. She turned around to find Jonathan holding out her cane for her. "Found this on the floor by the door. We can't have our cripple go without her cane, can we?"

She bristled as the heat flowed to her cheeks. Thousands of retaliations flooded her mind, but none of them conveyed her feelings towards the man. Snatching the wooden stick from him she spun back. 'What the hell is he doing? Is he just poking at me trying to get some kind of reaction from me? God, I think I can smell the gin all the way over here.'

"Here it is!"

She looked back up just in time to see Evy shove the book right under her nose, her finger pointing to a group of hieroglyphics that might as well have been written in an alien language to Bianca. "The amulet of Isis! It says right here that it was housed in the grand temple in Memphis until Napoleon's campaign in Egypt disrupted most of the shrines. It hasn't been seen for centuries! She glanced around at the other three people in the room as if they were supposed to make the same connection that she had. She was sorely disappointed.

"That's nice, Evy, but what does that have anything to do with finding the men that took your new favorite toy?" Rick asked, the fatigue from the day finally showing in his voice.

"Well, dear, if you had read those books that I got for your birthday this year, you would know that this particular amulet was known for its mind altering powers. If this text is accurate, then it grants the wearer the power to create a kind of dream world for their enemies. They are able to shift and control the dream on their command."

"And you think that's what the man did to me? That's why I couldn't hurt him with the gun and why I couldn't talk? Bianca asked to woman. 'Could something like that really be real? Louis worked around ancient old trinkets for 50 years and he never mentioned coming across anything like that. Although, Louis never spent any time robbing tombs in Napoleon's army."

Evelyn stared strait into Bianca's eyes. "Yes, I do." She paused as if weighing whether now was the best time to bring something up. "In fact, the presence of such a powerful lost artifact makes sense considering what I managed to find out about the tablet that you left here yesterday."

"Oh, this should be wonderful." Jonathan mumbled under his breath, earning him an elbow to the side from his brother in law.

"I told you before that I had read about something very similar to your tablet in one of my books a while ago. It fit perfectly with an artifact is connected to the myth of Setna, one of Ramses the Great's sons. According to the myth, the son was a great and powerful wizard. He learned all the spells that his priests could offer him, but he still wasn't satisfied with his power."

Evy slid into the armchair behind the desk and Bianca did the same. She leaned foreword, eager to learn just what was going on.

"The son heard of a very powerful book of spells, written by the scribe god Thoth himself, and wanted it for himself. He and his brother traveled to the books resting place in a tomb where he met with the spirits of a previous prince and his family. The spirits warned him that they had found the book for its power and were punished by the gods. The prince ignored their warnings and took the book and learned its spells."

"I'm sure this is going to end well." Rick scoffed from his place behind his wife.

"Yes, the prince was haunted by a vision where he left his wife for a priestess and sacrificed his children to the sacred cats of Bastet. When he realized his mistake, he returned to the spirits on his hands and knees and begged for their forgiveness. They agreed on the condition that the prince must make sure that no one else can ever learn the power of the book. Their tomb was sealed and covered by the sand dunes. No one has seen it since then."

"And, let me guess, our little tablet has the location of the tomb that is never supposed to be opened ever again."

Evelyn looked up at her husband and snapped the book closed. "Not quite. The prince didn't completely go back on his word. What's on the tablet seems to only be the first step of many that would eventually lead someone to the resting place of the book."

"A treasure hunt." Bianca said, not really wanting to believe a word of what she had been told. "Are you really trying to tell me that hunk of rock that's been sitting on my shelf for years is actually the key to some ancient hunt for some godly power? That a man with a rusted old, piece of junk necklace with the power to control minds sent a gang of cronies to demolish my home and work because they think it will lead them to a magic spell book? How can you even think that for even a second?" Her voice was growing shriller and more frenzied with every passing sentence. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself, but it did little to help her frazzled nerves.

"You're taking this quite well."

Evy looked pointedly at her brother. "That's enough. This is a lot to take in at one time, I know. But we all need to focus on what's important here. The fact is that somewhere, a man who was willing to harm a defenseless woman for just the first clue now has the chance to be the most powerful man on this earth."

Rick was suddenly up in arms. "No. No, I know where this is going. You want to run off on some adventure, put yourself in danger yet again, and come out of this with the magic book. No."

"But, Rick, what else are we supposed to do? This man could rule the world with that kind of power. He'll gain control of the skies, the earth. It even contains the language of the gods!"

"I'll tell you what we can do. We can call the police, tell them that some nut job broke into the museum and let them do their job. Then, we can actually try to lead normal lives without any more mummies or gold books or bringing princesses back from the dead."

Bianca glanced back at Jonathan for any hint about what was happening. The man leaned down closer to her and whispered. "Don't worry about this one, mum. Evy's going to win hands down."

'I don't even know whose side I'm on.' she thought as the couple continued their heated argument. 'It's not like I was even supposed to be involved in the first place. It was all just a big coincidence. The police really would be the best idea, wouldn't they? Then I could just go back to my shop and forget the whole thing. The shop that practically doesn't even exist anymore. Right.' The image of the topped over shelves and broken shards of pottery that littered the floor came to mind. She shuddered slightly at the thought.

Bianca gazed around the room at the different artifacts that were housed in the many display cases and on the shelves. She wondered briefly if any of them had such an interesting story too. 'But that man knew me. Or, at least, he knew Louis. He made it sound like I should have already known about the book and what was on the tablet. What if I was meant to find the book?' She shook her head lightly at the thought. 'Don't be stupid, Bi. It's just a rock that happened to be in your store. But still...'

"We should go after it."

All three pairs of eyes were suddenly on her. She hadn't even meant to say it out loud; it had just burst out unprovoked. Evelyn smiled at her warmly before turning to her husband with a look of satisfaction. Rick sighed and seemed to resign to the idea. Bianca cleared her throat to mask her sudden outburst. "I mean, Evelyn probably has some idea about where the first clue is and the four of us can probably get there faster than the police could."

No one commented on the fact that she had included her self in the group. "You do have some idea where the first clue is, don't you?" Bianca prayed that she hadn't just made a complete fool of herself yet again.

Thankfully, Evelyn nodded. "Yes, I managed to translate most of the tablet before you got here. I wrote down the exact translation and put it somewhere around here. Hold on just a moment."

The woman began flipping over papers and shaking out books in her wild chase. Just when Bianca thought she would give up, Evy waved a scrap of paper up triumphantly. "Ah! Here it is!"

Rick gestured for her to hurry up, but she didn't seem to pay him any mind. "It's only half finished, but it should be enough to discover the location of the next clue. In fact, I think I already have it figured out. Here's what it said, 'Hidden in the crescent of the moon, guarded by the eye of Ra, the holder of the ka will be the holder of this truth.' Then it goes on more about the gods that watch over the book and about it igniting their wrath upon those that search for the book for a bit, but that's not really important."

"It's not?" Bianca said.

Evelyn ignored her. "What is important is that I think I know where the clue was hidden. It's obviously a tomb of some kind from the third part, the ka refers to someone's spirit, and the crescent of the moon and the Ra part must be a clue to the tomb's location." She pulled out a piece of paper that looked like a letter or telegraph from her desk drawer and placed it on the surface. "It just so happens that I just received word from a fellow colleague of mine that a tomb was excavated just this past week. A tomb that was found in a crescent shaped valley near Mut that was decorated only with carvings of the sun."

It clicked in Bianca's head at that moment. "The eye of Ra is the sun."

"That's right." She passed the paper to Rick so he could stop looming over her shoulder to read it. "And if I'm correct and this tomb is the one that the stone speaks of, then every item and recreations of the art from the tomb has been moved from the valley to the city Minya. Which is much closer than the middle of the desert that they were originally found."

Jonathan snatched the letter from his brother in law's hands and skimmed it quickly before throwing it carelessly into Bianca's lap. "So, if this Apo what ever his name is doesn't know that the tomb has already been excavated, then we have a chance to get the next clue before him."

"Precisely." Evy said, looking incredibly proud of her own detective work.

Rick looked to his wife in one last chance to change her mind. He was met with a stony glare. He sighed and rolled his eyes towards he ceiling. "I guess I'll go get the car."

* * *

><p>Spoiler Alert: the next clue is an invisible map on the back of the declaration of independence.<p>

Plot actually happened in this one and now I feel like it was way too rushed. Hrmph.

Also, the title of this chapter has absolutely nothing to do with anything. It's actually an obscure reference to the song that I had on repeat while I wrote this chapter. The more you know!

I would really like feedback as always. Thanks!


	5. Chapter 5: No Domestic Goddess Here

**Chapter Five: No Domestic Goddess Here**

The wheels of the train churned at a frantic pace below Bianca's seat. Every so often, they would buck or shake t the side, reminding her once again that the vehicle was older than she was and should have been impounded years ago.

That was just one of the many items on her ever growing list of what was making her annoyed at that moment. The seats were barely cushioned, they didn't have a pillow with them, so the only thing that was available to rest her head on was the rattling window pane, she didn't have any thing to entertain herself with, four people had been shoved into a compartment that was clearly meant for two and to make everything so much better, they were going to be on this train for the entire afternoon and through the night. In the beginning, she had tried to console herself by thinking that riding in a moving vehicle was ten times more comfortable than trying to ride a camel across the vast desert, but by the third time she had to ask Jonathan if he would please stop leaning on her so much, even that didn't have any effect on her mood.

Bianca sighed as she glanced down at the piece of fabric that she held in once hand and the needle that she had grasped in the other. She could already tell that the line of stitches that now ran along the new hem was terribly crooked and that the right pant leg would now be about an inch longer than the other, but it had taken too long to complete and she was too tired to go back and fix it.

In their mad dash to gather all the things that they would need for their journey, Evy had been thoughtful and had thrown in an extra pair of clothing in with the water canteens, picks, and shot guns. Unfortunately, Evy was about four inches taller than Bianca and had completely different dimensions meaning that she could either run around tripping on the hem of her trousers all day, or she could put her minuscule skills to work and try to fix them. She was beginning to think that she should have chosen the former.

'In, out, in, out, god damn it.' Bianca jumped up at the pinch of pain that came as she jabbed her finger with the needle yet again. She untangled the hand from the layers of fabric and held it out. Thankfully, the jab hadn't drawn blood. She threw her sewing project into the bag that she had crammed down half under the seat in a huff. She ran a hand across her hair. The one good thing that had happened so far was her finding a ribbon and enough pins for her to tie the mad mass of curls she called hair into a tidy bun. 'I give up. I can stay in this stupid skirt for the next month if it means I don't have to stab myself anymore.' She knew that she would pick it back up again within the hour.

The couple sitting across from her hadn't been awake for the last few hours of the trip. Evy was leaning fully on her husband while Rick seemed to be trying to take up as much leg room as he possibly could in the small private compartment they had been given. Bianca glanced up as Evy sighed softly in her sleep and turned more towards her husband. She rolled her eyes at the woman as she herself turned to look out the window at the scenery as it whirled past.

It really wasn't much to look at. Civilization had long been left behind and now the train rumbled through miles and miles of sand dunes, flats and more sand dunes. The most exciting thing she had seen so far was a caravan and the skeletal remains of a camel. Bianca leaned closer to the window and shut her eyes, hoping that she might be able to actually get some sleep. The track below seemed to even out and the train ran smoother for a few minutes as she began to relax. Her mind, which had been buzzing non stop for the last twelve hours, settled. A few hummed bars of the song stuck in her head, a jazzy piece that she didn't know the words to, leaked out before she could stop them.

"I didn't know you listened to good music, mum!"

Bianca grimaced at the sound of her companion's voice. It had been so long without hearing his voice, she was beginning to forget how annoying she found it. "You go to many gin joints then?"

"No, Mr. Carnahan. I haven't been to any place like that since I was a teen-ager. My neighbors think that it's acceptable to play their records very loudly at early hours in the morning, that's all."

He stretched his arms above his head then draped them above the seat as if he sat on his own personal throne and not a rickety, old bench. "Well, you're missing out on a whole lot of fun. Maybe we could hit the town together some day after this whole thing is over."

Bianca scoffed at his suggestion. "I don't think so, Mr. Carna-"

"It's Jonathan, mum. I'm not that far past my prime yet." he interrupted.

"I don't think so, Jonathan." She smiled slightly at his quip and continued, putting more emphasis on his name than was needed. Hoping to steer the conversation away from her going anywhere with him, she asked, "How much longer are we going to be stuck on this train? I don't think I can stand being cramped in this cabin for much longer."

Jonathan let out a laugh that made her glance towards the sleeping pair to see if it woke them. "You'd better get used to it. Minya might be closer than the middle of the desert that we could be going to, but it's still quite a haul from Cairo. My best advise would be to just get comfortable and get as much sleep as possible."

"And what about you?"

"Someone has to stay awake to make sure baddies don't steal you away into the night, don't they?" The look on her face seemed to get across that she wanted a real answer from him. "And I was hoping to find someone on this moving pile of rust and bolts that might have some booze they're willing to share."

'That's exactly what I thought.' Bianca shook her head lightly as she turned towards the window, hoping for a chance to take his advice.

The train was shaking just as much as ever, but the exhaustion had finally caught up with her. She could feel herself drifting off the very moment she lay her head against the wall. The bumps of the car turned into a constant rocking motion and the churning of the wheels soon sounded like a soothing buzz to her worn out mind. Just before she drifted off completely, she heard Jonathan ask one more question. "You sure you don't have any nicknames, mum?"

The thought to keep her mouth shut didn't even occur to her.

"Bibi." she yawned. And with that, she was asleep.

* * *

><p>The setting sun behind them cast a crimson light on the line of camels as they marched across the desert sand. They had been traveling the entire day, but there wasn't the usual murmur of discontent that you would find in a normal band as they traveled. The only man brave enough to voice his displeasure at his traveling conditions now lay twenty miles back with several holes in his chest. No one had spoken a word since then.<p>

Apophis rode in the front of the train of camels, riding on his own thoroughbred horse he had purchase before setting out from the city. Years of high society living had conditioned him not to ride anything but the best. Especially around his own men; there was no need to get them thinking that they were on the same level.

He motioned to his next in line, an ex-military man he had picked up in Athens years before and the only man he would put a bit of trust in. The man steered his own camel close enough to hear his boss speak. "Have the scouts reported anything yet, Iason?"

Iason shook his head and stared at the sand in front of him dutifully. Apophis didn't take to anyone below him on the chain of command making eye contact with him. "No, sir. None of them have seen anything since we started off." When he wasn't dismissed, he took a chance and asked, "Is there something that they should be looking for, sir?"

Instead of chastising him as was expected, Apophis instead gazed around at the mountainous dunes that surrounded them on all sides as if waiting for something to appear out of the sickly hot air. "No, nothing in particular. I was simply hoping that she would put up a better fight than this." Apophis trailed off, leaving Iason with more questions than before he asked.

It was true that he was disappointed with the girl, he had expected so much more from her, but the thought that she had given up the chase before it even began brought some joy with it as well.

"Tell the men to pick up the pace. Any that refuse and move too slowly will be punished." Apophis barked at his right hand man. A smirk crossed his face for a split second as his orders were relaid to the men. With any luck, one of them would begin to lag.

* * *

><p>Bianca jolted awake at the same time the train screeched to a halt. Her dream disintegrated into wisps within moments and she found herself stuck in the nightmare that was her real life at the moment. Her neck and back cracked audibly as she forced herself to sit up in the seat. She could only imagine what her leg was going to feel like after so many hours crammed into the corner with no movement.<p>

"We're finally here! I thought we might be traveling forever." Evy said, just a little too awake and happily for Bianca's taste. 'That's coming from the person that managed to sleep through the whole thing and had a nice, comfortable person to lean against.' Bianca huffed as she thought back at the hours of staring out at nothing but sky and sand.

Jonathan seemed to agree with her because she could hear him grumbling at his sister's merriment as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Mind not being so loud, Evy? I think someone hit me in the head with a sledgehammer last night."

A very unladylike snort left Bianca as she realized that he was paying for the fun that he must have had after she went to sleep. He caught her glance and winked, before going back to wincing at the sounds of bags being pulled from the over head compartments and voices babbling in their native tongue.

"Well, come on. Grab your stuff and let's get off this hunk of junk." Rick said as he stood and pulled his pack over his shoulders. The handle of a shot gun poked out just enough for someone to realize what it was and Bianca began to estimate how long it would be before they were stopped by the police.

The men filed out of the cabin quickly while Evy fumbled with her bags and Bianca fought to get her limbs to cooperate with her again. The prickly feeling of a once asleep foot was beginning to set in which only added to the stiffness and resistence that she felt from her bad leg. Thankfully, Evelyn was right there when she hauled herself to her feet and began to wobble almost immediately. Evy took a firm grip on Bianca's arm, allowing her to use her as a balance as she teetered out of the car and down onto the platform.

"There you are. We thought you got lost in there." Rick said. He moved to take his wife's bags and gave her a quick peck on the cheek in the process. Bianca noticed Jonathan roll his eyes at the action and couldn't help but agree with him. She was never one for mushy shows of affection and especially not ones when you were supposed to be saving the world from a mad man.

Binaca cleared her throat and glanced at the lovey dovey couple next to her. "So, what's the plan? You said that the museum here has everything taken from the tomb now, right? How can you be sure that they'll let us just waltz in to take a sneak peak at their priceless artifacts."

"She has a point Evy, you might be a respected scholar in Cairo and London, but I'm not so sure these people will be as willing to bend over backwards for you." Rick said as he gathered up the rest of the suitcases and started hauling them towards the street.

Evelyn began steering Bianca around the hoards of people that seemed to be coming from every direction imaginable with ease. "They have to let us see them! We have more than enough evidence that the clue is somewhere within those artifacts, we have the testimony of Bianca about the break in and, if you have forgotten, I am a renowned Egyptologist not only in the little ten block radius around our home, but all across this country."

"Easy there, mum. No need to get snippy with the man." Jonathan looked around at the buildings and stalls that now surrounded them. The train ran directly through the city and the station was positioned in the exact middle of the most industrial part of town. Despite that, there wasn't a single automobile on the street. "I don't want to be the first one to say this, but I don't think we're going to find a cab any where around here."

"Perfect." Bianca groaned. "How far away is this museum?"

Rick pulled out one of his many handy maps from his pack and gave it a quick glance before answering. "Only about a mile from here. We should be able to get there within the hour if we hurry up."

He didn't wait to even see if any one was following him as he started off in the direction of their destination. Bianca hoped more than anything that Rick actually knew where he was going.

"Are you going to be alright walking that far?" Evelyn asked Bianca softly enough that no one else could hear.

She nodded. "I should be fine. A stretch should do it some good after that ride." Bianca noticed out of the corner of her eye that the other woman kept glancing over at her, then quickly darting back. "Do you have something you want to ask?"

Evelyn looked startled at being caught, then quickly turned to embarrassed. "I was just wondering, if you don't mind telling me of course, what happened. You know, to your leg."

She had expected this questions for a while now. In fact, most everyone that she spent time with ended up having the same conversation. "I was in an automobile crash when I was eighteen. My knee never healed correctly, so it's difficult to bend or put much weight on." Seeing the dreaded pity cross over her face, Bianca added, "It's really not as bad as it could have been. At least I can walk."

"Yes, I suppose you're right. It's still so unfortunate that something like that happened to you. And at such a young age."

"What was unfortunate?" Jonathan called over his shoulder at the two woman trailing behind.

"Meeting you." Bianca shot back at him. She smiled slightly as she felt Evy shake with laughter. With the entire group in a better mood than they had been for days the walk to the museum didn't seem too long after that.

* * *

><p>Two hours later, Evelyn sat, absolutely fuming, in the plush cushioned seat across from an aging man. Bianca could see the woman tense more and more with every word he said, and she didn't blame her one bit. She knew that she would have gone into a full blown hissy hit by that point if it had been her in the hot seat.<p>

"And further more, just because you are some big shot from the great England, that means nothing to the real scholars here." The man droned on in his heavily accented, chalky voice. "We have worked for years to be where we are today, and what have you done? From what I hear, you stumbled upon a tomb, got half a dozen Americans killed, and then the site mysteriously disappeared into the sand right after you managed to get out with the 'treasures'. Others might have been fooled by your story, Mrs. O'Connell, but I am not."

Bianca raised an eyebrow at Rick at the curator's comments and got a mouthed 'long story' in return.

They had been listening to the ancient man talk in circles for the last half hour. The very moment that he learned what they were coming to him for and just who they were, he had transformed into a hostile beast, bent on stopping them from getting even fifty feet from the artifacts that they needed to see.

"Yes, but if you would just listen to us, we have proof right here that the artifacts inside your storage room this very instant can lead us to the resting place of the-"

Her held up a hand, silencing her instantly. "I have had enough of your fairy tale. If you want to waste your time chasing myths and false archeology, then you are free to do so, but I will not have you using my property and resources to do so."

Bianca opened her mouth to begin a rampage against him, but Rick beat her to it. After spending just a few days around the man, she could pick up on the dangerous, poison, edge in his voice. "Listen, we aren't asking you to hop across the Sahara with us. All we want are a few hours to look over what you found in that Ra tomb and then we will be on our merry way. You can forget that we were ever even here."

The curator scanned the group, his eyes giving Jonathan a distasteful once over as he pulled out his trusty flask. "I'm sure that you can remember your way out. Good afternoon."

* * *

><p>"What a pleasant man. Can we invite him for tea some time when this whole thing blows over?"<p>

Bianca would have thrown something at Jonathan if she had anything at hand at the moment. Instead she lowered herself onto the wooden bench just outside the building they just left and said, "Evelyn, what on earth did you do to him?"

Evy ran a hand through her hair as she paced up and down the side walk. Her husband stood dutifully by her the whole time. "I have no idea! I mean, some of the men in the community don't take to having a woman in charge of an area of a museum, but I've never had anything like that happen before."

"You know we have to get to those artifacts, right? The more time we waste here, the more time we give our friend, Apophis to find out that he's in the wrong end of Egypt and coming running." Rick said.

Evelyn looked up at the stone building. It wasn't nearly as impressive as her own, but it was still large and housed just as many marvels. "There must be some way to get into the store room with out them knowing."

Bianca almost gave herself whiplash as she turned to look at the woman. 'Did I really just hear that? Did she really just suggest what I think she suggested? She knows that sounded highly illegal, doesn't she?"

Jonathan grinned and plopped down on the bench next to her, spreading out to take up as much of it as possible without being on Bianca's lap. She was almost too in shock to be annoyed. "Sounds like you're finally coming around to my side, dear sister."

Bianca could hardly imagine just what 'his side' entailed and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know.

* * *

><p><strong>I really want to thank everyone who has taken the time to review this so far. Every comment means a lot to me, as corny as that sounds.<strong>

**The pacing in this chapter really gave me a lot of trouble. On the one hand, things actually need to start happening, but on the other I don't want to rush things. My main concern is having the characters behave as believably as possible, but that's starting to get in the way of other things that I need to do with the story. Comments and advice would be great at this point**.


	6. Chapter 6: Mission Improbable

**Chapter Six: Mission Improbable**

"What if we set a fire, just a small one, in one of the other wings to distract the staff. We could get in and out before they put it out."

"No, Jonathan."

"We could put ourselves in a box and have it delivered to the museum! It worked for the Romans, I don't know why it wouldn't work for us."

Bianca buried her head into her hands as she listened to Jonathan's babbling. It had been over an hour since they were thrown out of the museum and most of that time had been spent thinking of ways to get back in. The most vocal member of their party was also turning out to be the one with the worst ideas.

"What happens when they open the box and find us instead of a Chinese urn?" Rick asked from his seat on the sidewalk.

Jonathan shrugged. "Well, I don't hear you coming up with any ideas."

"That's because you haven't stopped talking long enough for any of us to get a word in." Bianca snapped at the man. Listening to him for that long had dissolved any resolve to be civil. "If you haven't been too busy listening to the sound of your own voice, you would notice that absolutely nothing that you've suggested has made a bit of sense!"

The look on Evelyn's face made her regret saying anything almost immediately. She knew that the whole group was on edge, but she had been the first to snap. Bianca stood up from the bench, ignoring the stiffness of her leg and walked a few feet away from their road side pow wow. She could hear whispering voices from behind her and did her best to block it out. She was sure that she heard her name mentioned a few times during the hushed conversation between the British siblings. She sighed. 'Maybe you should try to get that temper in check. You could stop and think before letting words outof your mouth. Maybe then you might not be the third wheel, just getting in everyone's way all the time.'

Ricks voice cut through the awkward silence that descended onto the group. "What if we did use a distraction of some kind. Not a fire, but something to get the attention of the guards and staff at least long enough for us to get in."

Eager to prove herself one of the group once again, Bianca spoke up, "What kind of distraction do you have in mind?"

"It would have to be something that draws attention." His wife cut in. "Something...boisterous and alarming."

Rick looked like he had an idea. "Yes, something that isn't so out of the ordinary that the authorities would be involved, but enough of a spectacle that people would want to watch."

It seemed as though Evy had caught on to what he was dancing around saying. "Yes, maybe something like an argument. A very loud, heated and passionate argument. One that would almost be over dramatic. One involving a certain two people that I know."

Bianca's heart seemed to sink as she realized what she was being roped into doing. "You don't really want us to...Me and him? Are you sure that's the best idea?"

She winced as she felt Jonathan drape his arm around her shoulders, leaning so heavily on her that she almost lost her balance. "What's the matter, love? You don't think you're up for the job?"

Shrugging him off of her and gently shoving him away, Bianca said, "I'm not saying that I can't do it. I'm just saying that it might not be enough to get the attention of the entire building. I mean, we aren't that much of a spectacle."

Evelyn looked at the two with a sly smile and a raised eyebrow. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

* * *

><p>Bianca peered out from behind the pillar at the museum before ducking back and facing the rest of the group. Evy and Rick, dressed all in black like a pair of common burglars, were speaking in hushed voices to one another. Jonathan on the other hand, seemed to be in the process of getting absolutely and totally sloshed. She knew that it might work better for their part of their part of the job, but the idea of putting up with an intoxicated Jon really wasn't one that she liked.<p>

"Now, Bianca, are you sure you have all the details? We can go over the plan again if you want." Evy said. She seemed to be losing the collected demeanor that she had maintained up until that point.

Bianca smiled at the woman. "I'm fine. You've already gone through the whole thing fifty times since noon. I think I'll still remember all the details when I'm eighty."

"We're going to do fine, Evy. Just relax and everything will just go along like it should." Her husband said, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her even closer.

"Right, unless one of the million things that could go wrong does, we should be just peachy." Jonathan mumbled, earning himself a glare from the rest.

Bianca pulled her pocket watch from her skirt and glanced down at the hands. "It's almost nine. The night guards should be relieving the day ones sometime soon."

"Right. Well, I suppose I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Shall we get this started?" Bianca wished that she could share some of the woman's ability to put on a brave face. Most of the time, anyone could tell exactly what Bianca was thinking and how she felt about it from one look at her.

Rick and Evy left the safety of their hiding place first. They slipped out into the shadows, staying just close enough to the building that they could see everything that was happening and have time to react quickly enough. The two were out of sight within moments, leaving the other duo to start the show.

At first, Bianca hadn't believed that they would be able to pull it off. She knew that she herself was a horrible actor and she doubted that Jonathan would be any better. But now, after going over and over it, she felt that they could at least get the guards to look the other way for a moment, even if it was just to kick the two off the front steps of the museum.

She took a few deep breaths as she went over what she was going to say one last time. 'Just go by the script. Just follow that and you'll get through this. All you have to do is yell a bit, stop your foot and then you can high tail it out of there.'

She jumped as she felt Jonathan's arm slither into the crook of her own. The smell of gin wafted off of the man and for a moment she thought that he must have taken a bath in the alcohol for it to be that strong. "Just remember, love, go along with what I say and everything will be coming up roses by the end of this."

That was definitely not what they had agreed upon. They had a script, they had practiced exactly what they were going to say and the best way to make it as big and obnoxious as possible. They were going to be missionaries, a role that Jonathan had apparently used to escape trouble a few times before. They were going to argue about whether or not they should go back to England since their work wasn't going anywhere. Going along with what ever happened to spill from the drunkard's brain was not part of the script.

Unfortunately, before she even had a chance to open her mouth and tell him that he was dead wrong, he was tugging her by the arm from the side lines and onto their stage of a side walk.

"Jonathan. Jonathan what the hell are you doing?" she hissed as she fought not to fall over as he pulled her along. She saw the guards posted outside the building looking in their direction with interest and knew that it was too late to go back now.

"Now look!" The man slurred, stumbling slightly and nearly bringing her down with him. "If you had just listened to me in the first place, we never would have missed our train out of this backwater city."

Rage began to bottle within her, urging her to simply blow up and finally put the man in his place. "What? That isn't- This isn't-" Bianca sputtered, her brain hardly able to for complete words let alone sentences. She could feel the gaze of the guards boring into her back. 'I'm going to kill him.'

"How the hell is it my fault? You're the one that took ages finding your ticket, which turned out to be in your coat pocket if I may remind you." She said, much louder than necessary to ensure that the guards would hear them. One of the two men began whispering to the other; she assumed that he was translating what was being spat back and forth. She thought she saw the glimmer of a smile on Jonathan's face before it morphed back into his pretend scowl.

"Oh, so it's my fault that you put my ticket somewhere ridiculous!"

"It's not ridiculous if it's a place that makes perfect sense! Besides, you weren't even looking that hard. You just stumble around with that damned flask all day, muttering bad ideas to anyone who has the little brains to listen to you." Bianca had to admit that getting into the acting wasn't nearly as hard when she wasn't even acting. She could already feel her cheeks getting their familiar burning as her voice got unintentionally louder and louder.

"Well you weren't much help either. Lounging around like the bloody queen of Shiba while the rest of us do all the work just like every other day." She had just thought up a very clever come back about his lack of enthusiasm as well when he continued. "I swear, Bibi, every other day your leg seems to be too stiff or too tired or too gimpy for you to do any work at all."

It wasn't even a conscious decision to swing out and hit him with her cane. She hardly even realized she had done it until he leapt away from her, cradling the arm that had been wounded. "Jesus, Bi! Are you trying to kill me?"

"How dare you?" Bianca screeched. She was sure that everyone in the city could hear her by that point, but at that moment she really didn't care. "You have no idea, do you? You have no idea what it's like!" Bianca took a deep breath to calm herself down. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the two guards starting to walk slowly down the steps of the museum and towards to argument.

It was at that moment that she remembered what they were actually supposed to be accomplishing with their fighting. Two figures darted from the shadows and through the doors to the museum before Bianca could even get a good look at them. 'Alright. They're in. We did it. Now we just have to not be arrested for disrupting the peace and we're in the clear.'

"Is there something wrong here, Miss?" the guard asked her, obviously struggling to form the words in his nonnative language.

"Everything's fine, officer." She said, trying as hard as possible to look like she hadn't just been screaming her head off. It was obvious that the man didn't buy it.

"Oh, don't worry about us, chaps." Jonathan said. He leaned towards the security as if sharing some kind of great secret. "We're on out honey moon, you know. It just hasn't been working out like we hoped. Marital bliss just isn't really working out for us so far. Right, Bibi?"

Bianca was almost too ruffled by his statement to respond. She managed to nod dumbly as the guard's demeanor turned about 180 degrees. "I know how that is. It is all fun until the knot gets tied." The older of the two men said.

The other nudged him a bit and said something that Bianca's mediocre skills couldn't translate fast enough. The elder nodded before telling the two, "We have to be back at our post. Just keep it quieter next time."

Jonathan let out a strangled sigh as the men marched back to the doors they were supposed to be guarding. "That went well. didn't it?"

If Bianca could have, she would have hit him again.

* * *

><p>The entire building was silent, as if there wasn't a single life form inside, as Rick and Evelyn crept towards the hallway. The dim lighting and shadows seemed to mask them, but they pressed against the wall as much as possible and moved at a snail's pace just in case. Every single breath they took seemed to be as loud as a siren and every carefully place footstep was a bomb.<p>

Faint footsteps sounded from behind them. Evy grasped her husband's sleeve and tugged lightly to make him stop. They turned to face the noise, their hearts hammering away in their chest and their throat tightening at the prospect of being caught. They both let out a sigh of relief when the sound faded off into one of the other exhibits. From skulking around the museum all day they knew that there was a very limited number of guards on patrol; they had only ever seen the two posted at the front entrance and three patrolling the halls.

They passed through the flora and fauna room, filled with stuffed lions and crocodiles, the European crusades exhibit and the Ancient Egyptian room before they reached their destination. Evy yearned to say something, anything really, to her husband, but the rational part of her mind told her to shut it until they were absolutely sure that no one could hear them.

Rick eased open the small, wooden door that lead to the storage room and slipped inside. Evy took one last glance around before she followed him. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the almost total dankness. When they did they could barely make out the rows and rows of crates that filled the room. "It could be in any of them." Rick said, exasperated.

"But, we don't have the time to look through them all. There could be hundreds here." Evy began pouring over the boxes looking for any sign of where they came from or what they held, while her husband began taking the opposite approach. He yanked off the lids and rustled around the contents before jumping to the next one, beyond caring about the level of noise that they were producing. Evelyn rolled her eyes at her husband's actions and continued her search.

After fifteen minuted of finding every artifact under the sun except for the ones they were looking for, Evy yelled out, "Rick, I think I found something!"

He was by her side and prying open the box in seconds. They peered inside the container and squinted into the darkness, trying to determine if the second clue was really in their grasp.

"This must be it!" Evy reached in and gingerly grasped the small clay pot that rest at the bottom of the box, surrounded by a cushion of wood shavings. She held it up and brushed off some of the dust that still coated its surface. Her finger traced one of the lines of hieroglyphics that covered the pot, scanning for any clue that it was in fact the item that they were looking for.

Both their heads shot up at the sound of heavy footsteps and barely hushed voices coming from outside the door. "Well, it better be, because I think our hosts know that we're here now." Rick said, starting to push his wife towards the door. "You just hold onto the clue and get ready to run."

"Run? I can't run with this! Do you have any idea just how fragile something like this is?" Despite her protests, Evy wrapped the pot tightly in her arms and followed after her husband to the exit.

"You ready, hun?" Rick asked light heartedly. She met his eyes and nodded.

With a solid kick from her husband, the door was flung open and the guards were started, giving them just enough time to dart past. The shouting of the men coupled with the pounding of their own feet filled the corridor as they sprinted towards the main lobby. Evy could have had a heart attack when Rick knocked over one of the cases showing off a papyrus reed mat, but her own adrenaline and the weight in her arms urged her to just keep running and scold him later.

Time seem to slow down to a near halt. What should have been a one and a half minute sprint seemed like an eternity of ducking around platforms and dodging columns. Finally, the double door that lead to the outside world was in view. They burst through and jumped down the steps three at a time. A chorus of "Stop them!" rang out from their per suitors, but by the time the outside guards had a chance to react, the two had disappeared down one of the countless ally ways that wound through the city and were gone.

* * *

><p>Iason had never seen Apophis show as much anger as he did standing in the empty, dark tomb. The most emotion he had ever shown was the twisted smirk that came over his face or the slight twitch of his lip that signaled that the man was displeased. Never before had he cursed or stormed about. And Iason had never been as frightened.<p>

Some of the workers had actually fled for fear of Apophis' anger. They simply bolted out into the unforgiving desert that stretched on for miles, seeming to prefer their chances with the unrelenting heat than with him. If he didn't know that there was a slight chance that he would be spared, Iason would have readily joined them.

"Why is it not here?" Apophis hissed, not even turning to look at his second in command.

Iason wondered for a moment if it had been a rhetorical question before he asked, "Sir?"

Apophis paced around the small, empty space as if the clue was still there and all he hoped he could still stumble upon it some how. "They couldn't have gotten here before us. It is impossible." He muttered as he ran a hand through his slicked back hair. "Even with that woman's help, she couldn't have deciphered the stone so quickly. We would have seen them; the scouts were searching every second. Gods damn it."

Iason took a few timid steps away from the man. The shadows caused by the lone torch cast deforming shadows over his comander as he muttered to himself and paced feverishly back and forth. Suddenly, he stopped. "Iason, gather the men together and be ready to set out again."

Iason gathered his courage and asked, "Where should I tell them we are going?"

Apophis simply resumed his pacing in silence.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry this chapter took so long to get out! It gave me a lot more trouble than it's worth. Comments and critique is always a great thing to get! <strong>

**My computer seems to be erasing random quotation marks now when I transfer the file from my computer onto the document manager so if you notice any mistakes that I missed, I would love it if you could let me know. Thank you!**


	7. Chapter 7: You're Impossible

Chapter Seven: You're Impossible

The tension was so thick between the two that you could cut it with a knife. Bianca sat, arms firmly crossed and brow furrowed, on an upturned fruit box and stared strait ahead. She didn't even flinch at the sounds of yelling voices and rowdy locals that filled the air around her. She was beyond that, all she wanted was to just crawl under some nice comfortable blankets and not come out for the next hundred years.

Her partner didn't seem nearly as drained by their ordeal as she was. Jonathan stood leaning against the wall a few feet away. She was happy to find that he had taken to not saying a word for the last twenty minutes and had instead just fidgeted around whenever he had the urge to make noise. It was a wonderful improvement.

Bianca sighed, pulled out her pocket watch and glanced down at the face. Rick and Evy should have been there by then. 'They must have gotten lost. I mean, these streets make absolutely no sense; none of them lead where they should and all. Yes, I'm sure that's what happened. There's no way they got caught.'

The sound of a trash can being knocked over jolted her from her thoughts. She spun around to look just in time to see a cat scamper off down the ally way. Bianca sighed.

"I have to admit, that was some great acting you did back there, Bi. Are you sure you're not actually a film star and you just forgot to mention it?" Jonathan's voice broke through the silence that she had fought to maintain. It brought back another wave of pure embarrassment as he reminded her of the latest incident of her losing her composure.

"Yes well, I had quite the motivation." She managed to keep her steely, emotionless voice in check as she spoke.

She could hear his shoes scuffing against the pavement as he kicked at a few loose pebbles. "Really? I thought that the leg thing might have been a bit too much, but you really worked with it." The smug grin that he wore was translated so clearly by his words she could see it perfectly in her mind's eye.

She began twirling her cane back and forth, concentrating on that rather than the man that stood next to her. 'I'm not going to say anything. All he wants is to get a rise out of me and I'm not going to let that happen again. I'll just stay quiet and he'll eventually get bored and move onto something else to keep himself occupied.'

"Although, I'm not really sure I deserved the hit with the old stick there. At least not for just stating the obvious, anyway."

Her grip on the cane tightened so hard and so fast she was surprised that it didn't shatter right then and there. "What is wrong with you? This whole time you've been poking and poking at me. Did I do something to offend you?"

If Jonathan was effected by her outburst, he didn't show it. "It's not my fault that you don't show any emotion other than annoyed, love. All I want is for you to loosen up a bit; shrug off the stuffy old woman act for a few seconds here and there.

Bianca's mouth hung open as she tried to wrap her head around what she had just been told. "So, every little annoying comment, every jab was just you trying to get me to have more fun while I'm trying to stop a mad man from destroying the world?"

He shrugged and pulled out his flask from his inside coat pocket. "I suppose so. It's awfully fun to make you squirm as well." He took a swig of the liquid inside then held it out for her to take.

Without thinking, Bianca found herself snatching it from his hand. She felt the burning sensation of the liquid as it traveled down her throat and she had to fight not to cough. She passed it back to him. "You're unbelievable."

"Thank you, dear. I try my best."

Bianca cleared her throat to try to alleviate the burn. It seemed to only make it worse. "But what about tonight? When your sister is risking her life breaking into a museum doesn't seem like the best time to be doing your little social experiment or what ever you'd like to call it."

He chuckled into his drink. "Ah, that. Well, I don't know if anyone has ever told you this, Bi, but you are an absolutely awful actress. I mean, I would be surprised if the guards would even spare you a second glance with the show you were putting on, so I decided to improvise."

'He what?' She thought as she stared up blankly at the man.

"And you took the bait hook line and sinker. I'd bet they heard you back home with the way you were yelling." He took in her look of disbelief. "It worked, didn't it?"

Bianca ran a hand over her hair, smoothing down fly aways and tucking the few strands that had escaped her bun behind her ear. 'He did it to help. I can't believe it. How could he think that catching me off guard like that would be helpful at all? I mean, it worked that time, but he couldn't have known how I was going to react.. How could he even think of being so-' She groaned and leaned back against the brick wall behind her. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she let out a small chuckle. 'I give up.'

"Was that laughter that I heard? There isn't supposed to be any of that coming from our dreaded ice princess over there." Jonathan said.

"You're ridiculous. Do you know that? Absolutely ridiculous." Her head wavered from side too side, her neck almost too tired to support it.

Jonathan simply smiled broader and took another sip of his drink.

* * *

><p>"Are you sure we're going the right way? All these streets look exactly the same to me." Rick glanced around at the rows of squat buildings that lined either side of the street.<p>

His wife pointed ahead to a small outlet, almost entirely hidden by a stack of crates. "That's the one right there! The one across from the rug stall and next to the herbalist. I knew that left was the right direction."

Rick rolled his eyes. He could remember very clearly that he had been the one to suggest going left at the last crossing while Evy had argued for the right. The sound of familiar voices could be hear as they got nearer to the meeting place. "Please don't tell me they're at it again." He said.

"Really, Bi? Two years of finishing school and this is the best that you can come up with? Your old head mistress must be rolling around her grave."

"Oh, like you could do much better! Lets see you try to sew a strait line on a shaking train. I bet you could even manage to take your eye out if you tried hard enough."

Rick looked over to his wife in surprise. "That sounds almost civil." He said. Evy smiled in the direction of the voices and hurried around the corner. She was met with the sight of the other two of their party lounging on one of the crates. Bianca seemed to be in the middle of showing off what her handy work had done to the pair of trousers that she had been lent. Jonathan's face was tinged pink from laughter.

"There you are!" he exclaimed, leaping up from his seat and staggering a bit. "We've been waiting here for ages, haven't we Bi?"

Bianca grabbed her cane from its resting place and used it to lift herself onto her feet. "We were afraid that you might have gotten caught. Jonathan thought of some interesting ways to raise your bail money." She said. Seeing the object cradled in Evi's arms she seemed to regain her composure. Her face regained it's now familiar calm and relatively emotionless state. If she had glanced over at Jonathan at that moment, she would have noted the twinge of disappointment that crossed his. "Is that the clue? Have you deciphered where we need to go next yet?"

Evelyn placed the small clay pot gingerly on top of the box and knelt down next to it, pointing to the infinitesimal lines of hieroglyphics that covered its surface. "I managed to read some of what's written on the outside while we were coming here, but we haven't even had time to opening it yet. These lines here are about the royal prince that first wrote down the clues. Those symbols right there are his royal seal, his cartouche."

"Yeah, but does it mean anything?" her husband asked.

Evi rolled her eyes. "I'm getting to that, dear. If I can just get this lid off then we can see about what's inside the thing." She carefully pried off the cork lid, setting it aside in case they need to reseal it. She peered inside before pulling out a small roll of papyrus and placing it down on the box. Using as little force as possible, Evy unrolled the scroll and held it flat while her eyes began to scan the faded black writing.

Bianca felt the weight of uncertainly growing heavy in her chest. Flickers of doubt began to cross her mind. 'What if they took the wrong pot. What would we even do then? There's no way that we could ever go back to the museum without being thrown strait into jail. In fact, the more time we stay in the same city, the more likely it is that we all get to spend the rest of our lives behind bars.'

Her thoughts were interrupted by the other woman exclaiming, "Aha! This is it!" They all crowded closer to the jar and the translator. "It seems that this was written by the prince's high priest. He writes 'By the powers of the great and mighty king Ra, let those who seek the power face the trials set forth.' Something like this was on the tablet as well. Then it seems to go on some more about the sanctity of the book and about how we really shouldn't even be reading this, but then it finally gets to the next clue. The lost sight of the god grows and transforms. In the oasis of the lotus lies the next task. Follow the chariot in the sky in it's journey as your guide."

"Well, that's all very nice, but that didn't make a lick of sense."

Bianca couldn't help but nod in agreement with what Jonathan had said. "That last part is the only bit that I understand. The ancient Egyptians thought that the sun was actually Ra riding across the sky every day, right. So it must mean that where ever it is that we're supposed to be going is east from the valley where the clue originally was." The impressed look from Evelyn at her knowledge was enough to make Bianca crack a small smile.

"That's as far as I got too. As for the other parts I'm at a complete loss. There's nothing that I can remember from any of the myths of a god losing his sight and while the lotus flower is included in many myths, I don't see the connection between it and the story of the book."

The woman rubbed her forehead as if it would help beckon the thoughts forward. It didn't seem to help any.

"Why do we even need to know what the rest of the clue means? We know where the next location is; directly east from the tomb where this one was found. Why don't we just wing it and head there?" Her husband asked.

Evelyn sighed and mentally weighed her options. "That's always an option, but what if we've missed something important? Something that would cost us the book."

Bianca glanced at Jonathan, looking for any clue whether or not he was going to input his opinion. She figured if he was going to open his big mouth then it might be alright for her to do the same. Unfortunately for her, at that moment he seemed to be intent of studying the brick wall that he was leaning against.

Wrapping his arms around his wife's shoulders, Rick said, "Come on. What's the worst thing that could happen."

She didn't reply, but Bianca could swear that she saw the flicker of a smile pass over her lips. She knew that they were going to be on the move soon enough.

* * *

><p>Whoa there. Is that an update?<p>

I'm really sorry about the ridiculous amount of time that it took for this chapter to get written and the pitiful length. AP tests plus SATs plus final exams are really getting to me. As usual, thank you everyone who has reviewed so far! All comments and critiques are welcome.


	8. Chapter 8: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

**Chitty Chitty Bang Bang**

The shop that they were standing in was so shady it put Bianca's to shame. And that was saying something considering that hers was mistaken for being an abandoned building at least once a week by squatters looking for a place to crash. Bianca nudged at a lone screw that lay on the bare wooden floor with the toe of her boot, sending a cloud of dust hurling into the air. She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Rick had insisted that this would be their best bet in securing transportation, but she was beginning to have her doubts. Glancing around the small shack of a building, she took in the dingy lighting, the work tables propped up by what seemed like hope and will alone, and the greasy oil that glimmered on nearly every surface. The faster that they got far away the better.

A short, greasy man sat on the tattered armchair in the center of the room with his feet resting on the desk in front of him. As much as she tried to stare him down, the man refused to meet her eyes and instead seemed totally focused on picking at the splintering wood of his arm rest.

"And I've told you five times now that we don't want a street car. We want something that can go through the desert." Rick sighed, his patience clearly wearing thin already. His wife's grip on his arm tightened slightly as if telling him to calm down.

"I have already offered you my best cars. There is nothing else that I can do." The man said, his accent garbling his words so badly that Bianca had to strain to understand him.

Rick placed one hand on the man's desk and leaned in closer, "I know for a fact that you have an old army vehicle sitting out back right now."

Bianca say the man's eyes flicker up to meet Rick's for a split second before darting away. He gulped. "You ment that car? Why didn't you say so? I will give it to you for 150. Very cheap."

She could hear Jonathan gasp slightly at the mentioning of such a large sum. If they were back in Britain, they could buy a brand new ford for the same price and two of the car in question.

"I don't really think you understand what I've been telling you," Rick said, his voice dangerously low. "We need that car. So either you can let us buy it off of you for a reasonable price, or you might not be in business for much longer. Do you get where I'm going with this?"

The man nodded slowly, as if it pained him to not squeeze as much money from the customers as possible. "Fine. Fifty and the car is yours. I'll even throw in an extra tank of gas just for being such a good customer."

Bianca wouldn't have be surprised if Rick had reached out and clocked the man for giving so much sass right there and then. Instead, she watched as he reached into his pack and pulled out a ratty old wallet. After counting out the exact charge and throwing it onto the man's desk, Rick turned around and said, "Why don't you two go and put all of our things in the car. Jonathan and I can stay here and pick up the extra parts that we might need.

Bianca nodded, thankful for a chance to escape the shop, and was back outside into the boiling sun before Evy even had a chance to follow her. Thankfully, the large pile of trunks and bags that they had unceremoniously dumped on the ground before entering hadn't been disturbed. She went for one of the largest ones and started dragging it towards the back of the store.

"Oh, Bianca, let me help you with that!"

She felt the other end of the trunk being lifted into the air and the weight being taken from her. "It's fine, Evy."

The trunk was tugged back as her helper stopped in her tracks. Bianca whipped around to face the woman, nearly losing her balance when her cane got caught in the soft sand. The other woman was looking at her intensely with a strange look on her face. Bianca wasn't used to people looking at her with something other than barely disguised pity.

"Miss Bianca, do you like us?"

That was the last thing that she had expected to come from the woman's mouth. Her expression must have signaled that she had been caught off guard because the woman continued, "I mean, I know that this is all an awful lot to take in at one time and I don't expect you to welcome everything with open arms, but..."

"But what?"

Evy avoided meeting her eyes as she spoke, "Sometimes I feel as if you don't exactly want to be around us." She glanced up suddenly and began to look panicked. "I'm so sorry. That was incredibly rude of me."

Regret washed over Bianca as she thought back over the last few days. She knew that she could be short with people on occasion, but besides Louis and her family, there weren't many people that she was around often enough for them to comment on it. 'I never meant to upset Evy. Jonathan maybe, but not her.'

Seeming to notice her discomfort, Evy shook her head, signaling that she didn't need a response. Bianca turned back around and took a few steps forward, still struggling with the weight of the trunk.

The car that they had just purchased was not a sight to behold. Rust dotted its frame and the windshield seemed to have a coat of sand ingrained into the glass. But it was a desert car, the same that was used by the British during the Great War and would get them across the desert twice as fast as conventional means if they were lucky. With barely enough room for two and no roof to shelter them from the desert sun she could tell already that it would be a tight and uncomfortable ride.

With the help of Evy, the first trunk was heaved into the trunk and shoved around to make as much room as possible. Bianca glanced down at her hands which were already turning red from the work and sighed. "Evelyn?"

Evy, who had already started back towards the front of the shop, stopped, "Yes?"

Looking everywhere, but at the woman she was speaking to, Bianca said, "I don't...I don't dislike you. In fact, I really admire you. The way you're able to pull yourself together and take charge like that is something that I can only dream about doing myself."

She paused and snuck a quick glance to make sure that she was still listening, "I guess you all are already a team. You work together, you know one another and you get along and then here I come and mess it all up. I'm just some cripple that's caused far more trouble than I'm worth." She laughed hollowly.

"Oh, Bianca, surely you don't mean that?" she was back at her side in a split second. "We may be family, but you're not unwelcome here in the least!"

Bianca studied the woman's kind face and felt embarrassment and regrets wash over her. It seemed to click suddenly in her mind how foolish she was being. "Thank you, Evy. Thank you so much."

The emotions that she had been holding in seemed to overflow at that moment. Her knees turned to jelly and her eyes began to build up the tears that she had been denying for weeks now. She quickly turned her head away. "I'm sorry, it's just been a rough time lately with this and Louis...I don't know what's wrong with me."

Evy whipped out a handkerchief from her breast pocket and held it out to Bianca, who took it with a shaky hand. "It's alright to grieve, Bianca. I know that when my parents passed away I was a royal mess for months."

Before Bianca got a chance to thank her again, Rick called out from the store. "I thought you two were moving the bags, not having a gossip session!"

"Oh, hush up! It's only been a minute." His wife called back to him. Bianca sniffed and mopped up the tears that had managed to escape and shoved the used cloth into her own skirt pocket. With one last smile at each other, the women went to go help the men.

For the life of her, Bianca couldn't tell where she was. She turned around in circles, taking in the sights before her in awe. It was some kind of court yard, she could see that much, with crystal blue pools on both sides of the path way that seemed to stretch on for miles and impossibly tall pillars reaching up to the sky. Even the air that she breathed in seemed clean and somehow more vibrant. It was like paradise.

She began to walk forward, the heat of the marble warming her bare feet with each step. The wind whistling past her ears brought with them the sound of chiming glass and the soft notes of music.

"Hello?" She called out to the empty space, for once not feeling foolish for speaking to no one.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she received an answer. "You shouldnt be here. A raspy a ghostly voice ran through her mind. What do you seek in the book? What ever treasure you look for, the price is too great. Turn back. Leave your quest."

Bianca spun around in an attempt to locate the source of the voice, but found that she was still alone in the court yard. Who are you? She asked, "Are you that prince that Evy was talking about? Oh, what was his name? I'm sure it was something ridiculous."

The voice returned and if she didn't know better she would have sworn that the speaker was standing right next to her, "I am one of the chosen guardians of the book. The Gods will not look kindly at your refusal to stand down. You will be punished if you continue."

Panic was beginning to grow in the pit of her stomach. "No, you don't understand. We dont want the book, we're stopping this guy from getting it. He's insane! You'd understand if you met him."

The voice was coming from all directions now. "You refuse to stop your quest. The gods will not allow this. You will be destroyed by the trials before you get even close. You have made your choice, and now you will have to face the consequences."

The wind swirling around her began to pick up speed. She was forced to close her eyes to shield them from the harsh blowing and the whipping sand that it carried with it. Bianca felt her knees buckle and her head pound as marble below her began to tremble. The whispering voice of the guardian was joined by others, all morphing together into a constant drone of words all run together. Just when she was sure that she had reached her limit and her vision began to go dark, one voice in particular jumped out from the rest.

Louis? She thought through her muddled mind as she drifted into consciousness.

* * *

><p>She woke with a start. Her head shot around as she took in the sights of the desert dunes and the dark sky up above them. It took a moment, but she soon realized that they were still all in their designated places in the car, with Rick and Evy both sprawled out in the front and her still placed on top of the luggage. A smile wormed its way across her face when she noticed that someone had been kind enough to drape a blanket across her lap while she had slept.<p>

Running a hand across her face, Bianca thought back to her dream. Now that it was over, she realized that it was nothing to even worry about. For as long as she could remember, her dreams had been vivid and they always mixed in pieces of her daily life in with them. It was hardly a surprise that she would dream about the book when they were in fact chasing after the thing. She couldn't even begin to count the number of dreams that she'd had that included Louis since his death either. They were starting to become the standard.

The feeling of movement at her side shook her out of her thoughts. She turned just in time to see a sleeping Jonathan slide even closer to her. One arm managed to squeeze its way around her middle as he dropped his head onto her shoulder, effectively trapping her.

Her first instinct was to shove the man away, but the longer he stayed there, the more warmth transferred from him to her. And in the desert in the middle of the night, you need as much warmth as you can get. So, with a final sigh and a resigned roll of her eyes, Bianca shrugged back down into a better sleeping position and closed her eyes yet again. Thankfully, no one was awake to see the ghost of a smile that crossed her lips at her new found comfort.

* * *

><p>"If you want them awake so bad, then why don't you go get them up?"<p>

"Because, I'm in the middle of something, darling. Just go over and knock on the windshield or something."

Bianca lifted her head, still dazed and confused about just where she was and what all the noise was. The bright sun hurt her eyes as her brain fought to come up with an explanation as to why she was crammed into a corner on top of someone's suitcase. The sight of the surrounding desert seemed to bring it all back to her.

She sighed and tried to stretch her arms above her head like she usually did after a nights sleep, but found that they were trapped to her side by a somehow familiar weight. She inwardly groaned and turned her head to face the body that had draped its self across her own. Now she remembered.

With one sharp jab with her elbow, she forced Jonathan awake and then quickly dropped her own head back down to feign sleep. There was no need to make this any more awkward than it needed to be. She could hear him jolt awake and soon felt him lift himself up from the slouched position he had managed to fall asleep in. Both arms remained entangled with her.

"I forgot that we were still in this godforsaken desert for a moment." He groaned to himself. She smiled slightly at his comment. She was glad that she wasn't the only one to make that mistake.

The leather case beneath them squeaked as he slowly, gingerly, pulled himself away from her. She noticed the loss of heat immediately and for a moment she was tempted to lean back into his side.

Bianca could hear him jump from the car and onto the sand below and took that as her cue to wake up again. She stretched out her arms and worked to get the feeling back into them. Taking a moment to look around at her surroundings, she finally noticed the sight before them. An oasis, full of date trees and ferns stood high above them not a hundred feet away. She could hear the sounds of the birds and she could have sworn that she could pick up the sound of running water as well.

"So, is this it then?" Jonathan asked.

Bianca swung her legs over the edge of the car and prepared to jump down as the other three began speaking.

"We're pretty sure." Rick said.

His wife turned back towards the car and stopped for a second when she saw Bianca. "Oh, do be careful with that. The last thing we need is someone getting a twisted ankle, or worse out here. In fact, Jonathan, why don't you go and help Ms. Bianca get down from there."

Jonathan looked from his sister, to the car and then back to Evy. Seeing that it had been an order and not a question, he rolled his eyes and walked back to the car where Bianca was waiting with crossed arms and a stern expression.

"Well?" he asked when he stood directly in front of her.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "What? Aren't you going to help me? Or am I going to have to call Evy back over here?" Her tone was serious, but the slight twist up to her mouth made him think that there may have been a spark of playful teasing hidden in her words.

"If it's what the princess demands, then I have no choice." he said. She found herself being easily lifted from the rim of the car and placed down on the soft sand bellow. Bianca nodded her head slightly at her helper before turning her back on him to search for her cane in the piles of stuff that had been thrown into the car. She could head a faint sigh from Jonathan then the sound of him walking away.

With her cane in hand, she finally made her way to the edge of the oasis where the others were waiting. Her mind was still foggy with sleep, but she was awake enough to know that there was something odd about the large cluster of trees that stood before her.

"Well, come on."

Bianca looked over just in time to see Rick disappear into the brush with Evy close on his heels. As she scampered towards the tree line, she saw that Jonathan was waiting just at the edge for her. When she was nearly there, she asked, "Do they always just barge right in like that? I mean, they honestly have no idea what's going on."

Jonathan pushed a few of the low hanging branches out of the way like he was opening a door for her and said, "You have no idea. It's a wonder they've lived this long."

Bianca's mouth crept into a small smile as she slid past him and into the dense forest. If those two could survive things like this every day, then she at least had a bit of a chance herself.

* * *

><p><em>Rises from the depths of hell, posts a chapter, slides back down into the underworld in shame<em>


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